One Must Die
by Sentimental Semantics
Summary: A quest for new land to colonize turns into a slaughter, and as the survivors flee they are unaware that what they have witnessed may cause events that have no known precedent... Updates halted for the purpose of editing-and-overview. I'm sorry, guys.
1. Introduction

**Hello there. **

**This new story is a tale of survival and natural selection, and the cruelty of nature. It occurs a long time before Olimar even arrives. We're talking about millions of years here. **

**Anyway, I don't want to give too much of the plot away, so I won't say very much. Please not, however, that the first couple of chapters are quite short. **

"Survival of the Fittest."

Over the course of time, the planet Earth has been home to a wide variety of diverse organisms. Ever since the planet became suited to sustain life, organisms have existed—multiplied—perished—_adapted _in order to stay alive. Those beings that could not keep up with the ever-changing battleground habitats of the Earth faded away into nothingness; those that were able to survive were constantly changing in order to stay in existence. Various events in history—meteorites, flooding, tectonic plate movement—made survival even more challenging and competitive. And one species even grew to such power that they learned how to dominate the globe's terrain and tamper with the natural order with their designs.

After the Cataclysm, of course, that changed.

Ninety percent of all life on earth, including the humans, was wiped out. Technology and size could not save them.

Only the small survived.

Roaches and other insects, champions of surviving tough conditions and eons of time, managed to survive. In the depths of the oceans, many creatures were able to live through the Cataclysm. However, on land, most animals died, leaving the survivors in a position that was far more, shall we say, competitive. Resources were depleted, and gene pools were becoming narrower and narrower. Bugs evolved into odd, un bug-like creatures, and they all competed for survival by eating anything they could find, even each other. The plants that managed to survive were easy prey for the insects.

But, as we have discussed, life evolves to survive.

One particular plant developed forms of defense that was not poison, or thorns, or anything that would be expected of a plant—they developed the ability to move.

These plants, which stayed submerged when not on the run, would eject their pointed forms from the ground and use their leaves as feet, galloping away from the predators at high speed. From there, evolution realized that they could not survive on strong legs alone—they needed to defend themselves, as well.

And, since leaves are easily torn and damaged, the plants developed legs. Hands followed, and eventually heads even developed. Soon, the leaves that had once carried them away from threats were reduced to a single little leaf on a stem that emerged from the head.

Thus, the pikmin were born.

The pikmin were remarkably successful as a species, and were soon overrunning areas where bugs had seemed to dominate. Each small pikmin group had substantial potency.

But pikmin were usurping the position of another creature in the many roles that creatures played. These creatures had refused to evolve through and after the cataclysm—their original form had carried them through countless disasters and ages previously. Why would it fail them now?

The old rulers of the world were on the verge of clashing with a new, budding rebellion in the kingdoms of evolution.

It was only a matter of time…

**If you want to hear more of this story, just think of it as a snowball rolling downhill—each time you review, it gains speed. Soon, with your generous reviews, this mere snowball will become a snow-boulder, destroying everything in its path!**


	2. Yeer and Lear

**Who likes short shorts?**

**Yes. Neither do I. I also strongly dislike short chapters, but I'm afraid this chapter is somewhat short. We are introduced to a couple of characters, and the chapter ends with a bit of a twist. I hope you enjoy.**

**And, referring to a comment posted in the reviews…The 'onion', or seed-pod, developed as a central connection between all of its native pikmin. Since pikmin were too small to actually lay their own seeds, seed-pods developed to reproduce and shelter the pikmin. They can fly into the atmosphere to protect from predators, if they have the 'fuel', or stored food, to do so. They can not fly to specific locations (like in the games), however; they can only rise and fall. In the games, they can travel about by using the drafts of air that are blasted from the hocotatian ship, allowing the onions to fly using very little fuel. Each 'onion-class' pikmin is born from an onion, has a part of the conscience that is attached to the onion (therefore also meaning that all pikmin birthed from the same onion share a conscious connection); therefore, the destruction of a pikmin's onion would be a fairly traumatizing event for the pikmin. Also, since they cannot change destinations in the air, pikmin must carry their onions when traveling—it would take about fifteen, at least, to tote it, meaning that travel would not be possible with too few pikmin. If a onion does not have the necessary storage of food to fuel flying, the onion will not be able to rise off of the ground.**

Trying to put up a final resistance, the whiskerpillar squirmed indignantly as the yellow pikmin headed back towards his onion.

He was exhausted. Carrying one of these things, especially with its constant squirming, was very tiring. He knew he could not set it down, however, for it would try to escape, and the yellow pikmin was so tired, he might not be able to stop it.

Unfortunately, the twelve day old pikmin stumbled over a small pebble in his path. He fell forwards, and he was unable to restrain the whiskerpillar. It flopped onto the ground, but suddenly stopped squirming.

The yellow got to his feet warily, and eyed the motionless whiskerpillar with some confusion. _Perhaps it's as exhausted as I am, _the pikmin thought. _After all, it has been squirming all this time._

The yellow pikmin hefted up the orange and yellow bug, only to have it continue to squirm in his very hands. He almost lost his grip on it, but managed to keep it in his grasp. _Why does it only squirm when I pick it up_, the pikmin thought as he glared at the annoying bug.

He hefted it up with some difficulty as he got closer and closer towards his destination, huffing and heaving through the pores that covered his body. The barren landscape that surrounded him offered no shade—just rolling hills of dust, as far as the eye could see. His feet were almost collapsing beneath him, but he had to go on, for the good of the colony.

He stumbled his way across the plains, throwing dust and dirt into the air with every footstep. Finally, salvation appeared—as he reached the top of a large hill, he could see a yellow object balanced on three poles. It was not far now, just about six feet away.

He trudged the last distance with gusto, eager to be rid of his squirming burden. As he approached the final small ascent, he walked under a single blade of grass—the only speck of green as far as the eye could see. Two of his fellow yellows were huddled under it, looking for shade. One yellow, however, was sitting on top of it, dangling his feet over the edge. It must have taken him practice to be able to balance on the top of the blade of grass without slipping.

"Rough trip, huh?" The yellow atop the grass said.

The pikmin holding the whiskerpillar glared at him in response, and commented, "Would have been easier with a little help."

"Hey, why should we _all_ suffer?" The pikmin on the top of the grass replied. He then slid down the side, and ran up to the side of the other worker. "But, you're right; I should've helped." He said pleasantly, "Here, I'll carry it the rest of the way."

"Yes, that will help a _lot_," He other yellow growled as he walked past one of the yellow object's poles. An odd light was glaring down from the very bottom of the yellow thing. "Besides, I know you just want to take the credit," He added as he trudged up to the light, making his way past many other lounging yellows.

"Who, me? I've never been so insulted!" The other pikmin returned in genuine shock. The yellow holding the whiskerpillar dropped his baggage in the beam of light, and the whiskerpillar floated up into the yellow object, finally stopping its constant writhing. A small, white flower on the top of the yellow object spun around in a circular movement, but nothing happened afterwards. The yellow seed-pod was storing resources in case any of its residents would need to be 'replaced'. "Well, I suppose I can't pull the same trick twice," The lazy yellow sighed in a resigned tone.

"Darn right," The hardworking pikmin replied. "I'll never forgive you for last time." He then sighed, and sat down. "Time for some rest," He commented as he squatted.

"My thoughts exactly," the lazy one said, lying down wearily.

"You never do anything _but _rest, Lear," The first pikmin commented.

"You can't be serious! I was working right when you arrived," The lazy yellow, supposedly named Lear, argued.

"If my memory serves, you were sitting on some grass," The other one retorted.

"I was _scouting_, thank you very much," Lear replied. "I can get a higher vantage point from the grass, so I was watching the horizon for anything that might be coming."

"Like what?" The other pikmin said.

"Well," Lear said, thinking hard, "There might be some sort of dirt…monster…thing," He said, sounding satisfied. "See? I'll bet I was working harder than you. While you were running around with your little bug friends, I was keeping the seed-pod safe from dangerous monsters."

The other pikmin laughed, and said, "If you wanted to protect from monsters, you might as well protect us from yourself, considering the amount of food you absorb."

"Oh, shut up, Yeer!" Lear said, laughing a little bit as he lightly shoved Yeer on the back. "You think you're so great, just because you're two days older than me."

Suddenly, interrupting their conversation, the seed-pod above them released a single seed into the air. The seed skyrocketed upwards, and then gently sailed towards the earth, descending slowly as the leaf at the top of the seed slowed its fall. It landed, and burrowed into the ground, leaving only its stem exposed above the earth.

"…That's odd," Lear commented finally as all the pikmin nearby, which was a good sixty five, stared at the seed. One pikmin hesitantly walked forward and drew the sun's position in the dirt near the seed, so as to show when it had been released from the pod.

"Why would it do that?" Yeer asked nobody in particular as the other pikmin nearby began to talk amongst themselves. "It only does that when we have less than one hundred piks outside of the pod, and there are resources to spare." Yeer thought, and said, "There's already a hundred of us outside…Nobody went inside the hut, though…so that would mean…" He looked at Lear nervously, and Lear returned the glance. They both knew what it meant, but neither wanted to say it.

"Someone must have…died," A nearby yellow said sadly.

"Alright!" One yellow pikmin bellowed, and all the others stared at him. This particular pikmin had a small mark across his chest, and also did not have a leaf on the top of his head—instead, a white flower adorned the stem. "What groups were out?"

"Some pikmin went that way, Chieftain," one pikmin said, pointing towards the right of Year and Lear, who were in front of the 'Chieftain'. The pikmin formed a circle around him as soon as he spoke. Of course, directions were always easy for a pikmin—somehow, they always knew in what direction their native seed-hut (the one that sprouted them) was.

"I see," The Chieftain commented, before another pikmin spoke up.

"One group went that way, in search of life above the ground," The pikmin said, pointing in the direction that Yeer and Lear were facing.

"Any other groups?" The Chieftain asked. Yeer cleared his throat.

"Me and two other pikmin went that way," He said, pointing in the direction he had come. "We took a berry with us, so if things below the ground were hungry, they would try and get it."

"I see," The Chieftain said again. "We will split up," He said. "Each group will travel in one of the three directions. I want ten of us to stay here and guard the pod. Everyone else, split up evenly." As he finished, two more seeds soared out of the pod, and drifted into the ground below the Chieftain's feet. He hastily marked them, and then yelled, "Hurry! I will go that way!" He said, pointing to the north of the hut. "Move out!"

"I'm staying," Lear whispered.

"No, you're not," Yeer argued. "You're coming with me, in the direction I came from."

"Please?" Lear asked.

"No. You're going with me," Yeer said. Lear sighed.

"Let's get going!" The Chieftain shouted to the mob, which scrambled to action. "We must return by sunset!"

**I hope you liked it, although that author's not at the top…wow…very long, to say the least. **

**Well, I am actually posting this having just returned from a drama performance of 'Nicholas Nickelby'; I still have some of my costume/fake sideburns on, so I'm going to shut up now, let you get on with your life, and wash this stuff off. **

**P.S. Mutton chops are really weird feeling. And, this stuff won't come off! I could be in for some trouble!**


	3. Ambush among the Dunes

**Alright, the launching sequence has been initiated. Here comes the next installment of the story. This one includes a small fight, and some more character development. **

17 pikmin. Not bad, to say the least. 17 pikmin were capable of taking on a considerably powerful enemy, with a good battle strategy.

Of course, when you don't know what it is you'll find, it is hard to have a good battle strategy; in fact, it can be hard to have a strategy at all, especially without a leader.

The closest thing the group had to a leader was Yeer, simply because he knew where he was going and the others did not. Yeer would have been able to tell his way even without a footstep here and there. As Yeer lead the group and made the route (not to mention he was still at a considerable pace), Lear kept up beside him, looking around wildly for any danger. Yeer grunted, and commented, "If you traveled around more, you wouldn't always be so nervous."

"Nervous!?" Lear said, whirling around on Yeer. His voice was shaking a little, though. "Who said I was nervous!?"

Yeer stared past him, out at the blank and mundane horizon, and let out a well dramatized gasp of horror. Lear whirled around and stared out at the horizon. Once Yeer knew that Lear must have realized the trick played on him, Yeer stated conclusively, "You're nervous."

"I am _not _nervous," Lear argued. He looked up, and saw the sun's position in the sky. "Look," He said, pointing to the glowing orb. "The sun is going to set soon."

"We'll have time to get back," Yeer said reassuringly, although the comment was somewhat superficial because Yeer himself was not sure whether they would make it back in time.

The group arrived at an area where the ground was thrown up, and a small hole was present. "Ah," Yeer said. "Here's where I was last." He looked around for a sign of where his companions had gone next, and eventually found a trail of steps that he had not seen before. "Come on," He beckoned to the rest of the group, "He went this way."

They continued to follow the trail (albeit somewhat slower), and reached the crest of a hill. At the very top, the footsteps were visible traveling down the other side of the hill, and into an area where the dirt had been thrown up in many directions, and clumps of ground had been completely shattered. In the center of the area was a red berry, with no pikmin visibly present.

"Bad sign," Yeer said gravely, staring at the scene. He trotted down the hill, and ran up to the berry. The other pikmin followed shortly behind.

"What happened here?" One asked in gravelly tones, looking around at the torn up clods of earth. Yeer continued to examine the berry, which looked mainly untouched. He then looked up, and looked for further clues.

"You don't think that something might have…got them, do you?" Lear asked Yeer worriedly. Yeer did not respond, for he was staring at a patch of the ground. The patch was dusty, but an imprint was clearly visible in the ground. It looked like a pikmin had lied down in the spot, and the outline of the body was clearly visible.

"Look," He called to the others, who ran over and inspected the imprint. They muttered among themselves, and Yeer said decisively, "We should head back. I don't think were going to find anything else." He looked up, and added, "I don't like the look of this."

"Well, enough said," One yellow commented, turning his back on the others and walking towards the hill. "We should try and get back before sunse—ARGH!"

Naturally, he would not have said 'argh' under normal terms. However, in the middle of his comment, the ground below him had broken open, and he had been thrown onto his back. A small, green colored bug slithered out of the ground; its mouth was simply a pair of large incisors, and it had two small wings on its back. It clicked its mandibles, and lunged at the pikmin who had fallen. He pikmin yelled in horror, and then screamed in pain as the bug bit down on his stomach. He tried to pry open its powerful jaws, but got nowhere. The other pikmin warriors sailed to the rescue, piling on top of the bug and clobbering it senseless. The bug received many punches, kicks, stratches, and even blows from stems before it rolled over (it did not have legs) and ceased moving. However, before the pikmin had any time to react, about five more of the bugs surfaced from the ground and slithered towards the sentient plants.

"Blasted bugs!" One yellow yelled angrily, and leapt at one of the bugs. He avoided its clenching jaws, and landed a blow to the creature's abdomen. However, before he could place further punishment, another bug grabbed him in its jaws from behind and began to crush his torso, the pikmin yelled in pain as his comrades scattered, all attacking different shearwigs.

Yeer, closely followed by Lear, leapt onto one of the bugs from the side. He bashed his stem into the bug's torso, and Lear copied him. He two thwacked away at the bug, which whirled around with surprising speed and lunged, jaws opened wide. Yeer dived to the left, and Lear ducked under the lunge. Yeer kicked at the bug's abdomen as he dived, and struck the bug off of its intended course by about a centimeter. It landed with a painful thud, and both pikmin one again began to bash it repeatedly with their stems.

However, to their surprise, the bug leapt away from them, and suddenly took flight. It flew into the air above them, and the five other shearwigs followed suit, flying into the air. However, before one of them could escape from the pikmin's fury, a yellow leapt at the airborne bug and slammed into it, forcing it back to the ground. The nearby pikmin set on it with a fury, and soon the bug's life ebbed away.

"Cowardly insects," Lear muttered, and yelled after them, "Come back and fight!" Yeer raised his fist, awaiting to see if they would attack while airborne.

In one simultaneous movement, the bugs dived back towards earth, slowing their descent a little by flapping their small wings. One of the bugs fell on a pikmin, crushing it into the ground. The others gnashed their mandibles angrily as the swooped down to attack. Yeer sidestepped one of the diving bugs, which landed a few centimeters away from him. The bug crawled away as fast as it could, and tried to re-burrow into the ground. Lear dived at it, but he was too late; the shearwig retreated into the ground.

The last sounds of battle died away as the pikmin combatants regained their breath. Yeer looked around, and counted the remaining pikmin; there were fourteen pikmin still alive—three had been killed. "We must get out of here," Yeer said through a cough. "Head back to the hill!" He said, pointing to the hill the pikmin had recently been standing on. The group ran up to the top, and then gazed out at the horizon.

The sun would soon set. "We must hurry," One of the pikmin said anxiously, pointing to the sun. "The sun will soon set!"

"Are you stupid!?" Another one asked. "We'll never make it back to the seed-pod in time!"

"We have a chance!" The other pikmin argued, glaring at the disagreeing yellow.

"There is no time!"

"Then we will take a chance! Let's put it to a vote!"

"Fine," The disagreeing pik said. "All for heading back to the seed-pod?" He asked. Five pikmin raised their hands. "The majority speaks correctly," He said. "We do not have the speed that would be needed to get back to the pod."

"Then what are we supposed to do!?"

"We'll find shelter," The disagreeing pikmin said determinedly.

"You must be joking!" The hopeful pikmin said. "There's nothing out here but dusty, open hills!"

"We will have more chance out here than we will if we waste all our energy heading back to the pod," The disagreeing pikmin argued, while some others murmured in agreement. "Let's look for shelter, then!" He yelled.

After about fifteen minutes of traveling across the dunes, one pikmin spoke up excitedly. "Look!" Lear said, pointing.

A small hole was visible in the side of a nearby hill of dirt. Several rocks were strewn around the hole as well. The hole was about as wide and tall as a yellow pikmin, stem and all.

"Good find," The disagreeing pikmin from earlier said thankfully. "We'll find shelter from night inside that hole."

"In that hole!? Hah!" The pikmin that had lost the vote said. "For all we know, there might be more bugs down there! After all, they were all underground!"

"This hole is far bigger than anything that one of those bugs would make," The disagreeing pikmin stated as he began heading towards the hole. "I do not know what lives out here on the plains at night, but I've never seen a place that is so desolated. All I know is I'd rather be in shelter than out here."

One by one, the other pikmin followed after him. They neared the entrance. The disagreeing pikmin was the first to enter the dark hole. Lear and Yeer looked at each other nervously; neither was very eager to enter the dark, mysterious hole. Two more pikmin followed the first one before Yeer entered, followed by Lear. Soon, all the pikmin were crawling their way down the long, pitch black tunnel.

**First off, I'd like to comment that shearwigs are not the 'oh-so-cliched' species mentioned in both the summary and the introduction. No, they will be far more sinister…Someone out there already knows what they'll be, of course. **

**Well, drop a review. Half a minute of you're time, and you help this metaphorical snowball continue growing towards its intended goal: the ability to crush snowmen! **


	4. In the Depths of Darkness

**Well, here comes the next chapter. I fear it is very short, and ends in a very annoying way. However, I hear that these 'cliffhangers', or something of the sort, help to build up suspense. So, without further ado…**

"I can't even see my own hands," Lear muttered as he crawled on his hands and knees.

"Stop complaining," Some other pikmin called from up ahead. The path had gotten so narrow, the pikmin had been forced to crawl their way deeper.

"I wonder when this tunnel is going to end," One pikmin thought out loud.

"Who knows," Another replied. "Ow!" He followed up, and then added, "My head!"

"Are you alright?" Yeer asked.

"Fine," The pikmin said. "I just conked my head on the stupid top of the tunnel…Ouch… my stem…"

"Hey, the tunnel's gotten bigger!" Someone called from ahead. "Much bigger!"

Some of the pikmin cheered, and crawled at a faster rate. Eventually, through quite a bit of clumsiness, each pikmin got to the point where the tunnel enlarged. They could stand up again, not having to stoop over. They crowded around each other, not knowing how large the room was.

"Alright," The disagreeing pikmin, who had taken the role of leadership, said. "Everyone hold hands, and spread out. See how big this room is." The pikmin complied, and soon made a giant line. They easily reached across the room, which was about five inches in length. "Alright," The leader pik said. "We'll stay here until about the time the sun would rise."

The pikmin all sat down, and relaxed.

Yeer did not know how long it had been; maybe half the night had passed, possibly a little more. It certainly wasn't daytime, though. Even without being able to see the surface, he could easily tell that. He was sitting down on the ground. Lear was lying down on his back nearby, trying to get some sleep. The rest of the pikmin were idly sitting or lying around, trying to rest.

Yeer could not sleep, however; few of them could. Too many thoughts were going through Yeer's head. _I wonder what made this hole_, he thought to himself._ I hope it isn't dangerous. Well, it couldn't be very big, anyway, not if it could get through a hole like that. _

_I wonder what happened to this place_, he thought. _It's so…barren. Nothing above the ground but dust and dirt. And that one little blade of grass, I suppose…Maybe it just hasn't been very humid…still, it's not a desert out here, everything's just…gone…All of the plants and animals just seem to have disappeared, or moved away. _

Clack, clack, clack.

Yeer looked up, looking for the source of the sound. It was a very quiet tapping that was somewhat drowned out by something. It sounded a bit like footsteps, but too quick. It was almost as if one of the pikmin was tapping a finger on the ground, but the dust partially smothered the noise. Yeer waited several seconds, but the noise did not continue. He was about to go back to his thought stream when the noise came again.

Clack, clack-clack, clack-clack.

_What is that noise?_ He pondered curiously.

Clack-clack clack-clack clack-clack-clack-clack.

Lear groaned, and mumbled sleepily, "Whoever is doing that, stop! Some of us are trying to get some rest!"

Silence for a moment; then…Clack, clack, clack-clack, clack.

"Stop!" Lear repeated angrily. "That's really, really annoying!"

"Please do stop," Yeer added, sounding a little more sincere.

Clack.

"Ugh! Why won't you _stop_!?" Lear asked angrily. The sound was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Seriously, stop it, whoever is doing that," The leading yellow said in his deep voice.

CLACK! CLACK! CLACK-CLACK! The noise was louder this time.

"_Stop!_" The leading yellow yelled, probably waking up the rest of the pikmin. "You think that's really funny, don't you?"

"Shut up, all of you!" A drowsy pikmin shouted.

…Silence. All of the pikmin who were fully awake looked around expectantly, trying to find the culprit of the noises. Of course, this did not work very well, since they could barely see a thing.

CLACK-CLACK-Clack-Clack-Clack-clack-clack-clack…The noise trailed off, becoming quieter and quieter.

"That's IT!" The leader yelled angrily, standing up. "Whoever it is that's making that noise, when I find you, I'll—oof!" The pikmin had taken several steps forward, and tripped over a comrade. "…Sorry," He apologized.

More silence. No noise whatsoever. A complete hush had consumed the group. No movement, no noise.

"Hey, you guys?" One pikmin asked nervously.

"What is it?" The leader asked.

"Do you think that… it might not have been one of us making those noises?" The nervous pik asked.

More silence.

"Nonsense," The leader said after the pause. "There's nothing in this room except for us, and the exit we came from."

"Where is that?" Yeer asked.

"Right behind me," The yellow leader said reassuringly. "I've made sure to keep my back turned to it since we walked in."

Clack. Crunch.

There was a sudden crunch that helped to muffle the leader's yell of annoyance. It sounded like a rock, or large piece of dirt, had shattered. A small clump of dirt landed at Yeer's foot; although he could not see it, he felt it nudge his left foot.

"Whoever is doing that…" The leader said in a murderous tone.

"Wait…" Someone said in the gloom. The word gloom is best used here, because the area had suddenly grown a bit brighter. Yeer could make out his own hands.

"Hooray!" A pikmin shouted happily. "The sun has risen!"

_Odd, _Yeer thought to himself. _Seems like the sun should not have nearly risen yet. _

"It seems to me," The leader said," "That the sun should not rise for a while now."

"My thoughts exactly," Yeer said.

"But it must have risen!" A pikmin argued. "Where else could the light be coming from?"

"Down there," Lear said, pointing.

Yeer could barely distinguish his friend's form (Lear, apparently, had awoken completely), but eventually realized where Lear was pointing. At the other end of the room, there seemed to be a little less murky.

"How odd that there's light down there," Lear said quietly.

"Indeed," Said the leader. He walked towards the light's source, over several slumps of dirt that had broken apart. "I am going to go investigate," He said, still staring into the less murky area.

"It would be a bad idea to split up," Yeer pointed out.

"Yes…but what is down there?" Another pikmin said, walking to the leader's side.

"Alright," Yeer said with a sigh as he got up and walked over to the leader. Lear, not wanting to be separated from his friend, strode towards the leader as well. They could all discern themselves to some extent in the dark mist.

The group walked through a small hole that seemed to have been created when the crunching noise occurred. They found themselves in a similar room to the last one (from what they could discern, of course). The only difference was a large hole in the right wall, which was where the light seemed to be coming from. "There!" The leader commented, running up to the large hole. The other three pikmin followed close behind.

They looked over the hole, and gasped.

**Indeed. **

**This cave will hold many surprises, I can assure. Keep in mind, snowballs also ROLL faster with more snow, if you get my drift. **


	5. From a Shelter to a Trap

…**You know what's annoying? I just realized that this site does not detect asterisks in the documents placed on it, for some reason. **

**Anyway, here is the next chapter. It picks up exactly where it left off, answering the cliffhanger…somewhat dismally, too. Don't worry, though; something important will happen!**

**I'd also like to say that all measurements in this story, whether they be by millimeters, inches, feet, centimeters, miles, yards—in other words, metric or non-metric—are in our proportions, just the way you learned them (I hope). This is important, because a foot will seem much bigger to a pikmin than it would to a human. So, a foot is what WE would say is a foot. It is as simple as that.**

**Well, I've wasted enough of your time. Go ahead and read, if you wish!**

A massive cavern lay in front of them. They seemed to be looking through a hole in the wall—high in the wall, about five feet above the ground. Of course, there was a little more light in this room, allowing them too see to the other wall, about a yard away, but it was still very dark.

The walls were caved like something had carelessly drilled at them, missing spots and going too far on others. Gashes and small holes dotted the walls, as well. There was also the clacking noise that the pikmin had heard from earlier; only it was softer and farther away.

"Would you look at this place," The leader said in awe. "You could _live _down here!"

"If you could see anything," Yeer commented.

"So, what do you suppose must have made this hole?" Another pikmin asked.

"I don't have a clue," Yeer said, "But it must have been hardworking." At this, Lear snickered. Yeer glared at him.

"I bet it's big," the leader said. "It must be pretty big and strong to do all of this. It would be easy to get lost in here."

That was when it began; that was when the hideous creature decided to poke its head around the corner.

Yeer suddenly found himself about a millimeter away from what looked like a monster. It was brownish black, with naturally growing armor that was smooth in some places and ridged in others. The beast's head was absolutely disgusting; two pupil lacking, void-like eyes stared at Yeer. The monster's head was fairly flat, although it was a little bulgy; two antennae poked out the top, twitching. The beast also had mandibles, but not like the mandibles of a shearwig; in contrast to the shearwig's hatchet-like incisors, this creature had thorned, thin, curved ones. They formed sharp points at the end. From the very back of the head, a small neck ejected and disappeared around the corner.

Yeer fell backwards, yelling in horror. The monster clacked its mandibles, wiggled its antennae, and made a noise that could only be described as a cross between a chirp, a wail, and a shriek.

"Ugh, what is that?" The leading yellow commented in disgust. The creature then proceeded towards Yeer, walking horizontally across the sheer wall with ease. Its feet made a quick clacking noise as it walked.

The monster had six feet, which were joined to a very odd body. It was horizontal, and the legs came out at the sides like the legs of a very lanky crocodile with sharp, high raised knees. The beast's head was attached by a short neck to another section of the creature, which was in turn connected to a larger sphere. The legs protruded from the middle of the armored carcass; from afar, if the creature was not moving, it would be hard to tell if it was living or dead.

As the creature came around the curve in the wall, now standing on the side with the pikmin, it quickly walked to the floor. Behind it, a thunderous chorus of clacking rose up.

Yeer stared at the creature in horror, and it clacked its mandibles and charged towards him. It was almost upon him, and he had no chance. It widened its jaws, and Yeer shielded his face with his arm.

The leader and another yellow barged into the beast from the side, shoving it over. It chirped in protest, but the leading yellow gave a roar and body slammed it. It was a bit longer than he was, stem and all, but was no match for the pikmin when not even standing on its feet. The leader applied all of his strength into his right shoulder blade, and slammed into the monster's thorax (middle section) with a yellow of fury. The monster shrieked, and then snapped his mandibles at the leading pikmin.

The creature's mandibles clenched around the leading yellow's right arm, and he screamed in pain as the monster bit down on the top of the arm. Yeer came to his senses, and got to his feet. He then lunged forward and whacked the monster on the top of the head with his club-like stem. Lear ran up and followed suit, and after about three whacks apiece, the monster twitched and then froze. Its mandibles loosened just enough for the leader to get his arm loose. A massive gash covered the area where he had been bitten.

"Foul creature!" He cursed angrily at the corpse. "Perhaps we made a mistake coming here."

"Are you alright?" Lear asked.

"I'm fine," The leader winced, holding his right arm with his left. "Nothing serious, I suspect."

"That creature's feet were making the noise all this time," Yeer said. The clacking in the distance was becoming more and more amplified each second, and it was certainly not just one more of the monsters,"

"That doesn't sound good," The leader said worriedly. "We must get out of here!"

The group of pikmin retreated through the way they came, but not before they heard a scream of terror.

They ran back into the room, and found one of their former comrades trying to wrestle one of the creatures off of him. The monster had him pinned, and was biting down upon his neck. The pikmin's squirming became less frequent and more sluggish until he eventually stopped moving. The bug looked up at the rest of the pikmin, who were absolutely horrified and backed into a corner.

In the darkness, more of the monsters began to advance. "Run!" The leader hollered to the group, who searched wildly for the exit.

"There must have been another way into the room!" The pikmin who had come with the leading yellow, Yeer, and Lear commented. Immediately after, however, he gave a scream of terror as a pair of jaws grabbed him around the waist and dragged him to the floor. He screamed in pain and terror as another monster bit him on the neck. The dying yellow reached out a hand, trying to get the others to help him, but they could only stare in horrified shock. They backed away as more and more of the monsters began flowing into the room. The screams of terror from the pikmin bounced of the walls of the room, and merged with the chirping noises the monsters made.

Fortunately, the pikmin had found the small exit hole, and were climbing in. The monsters did not seem to see them go, looking for only the closest targets, who were mostly already pinned down. "Through the hole!" the leading yellow bellowed to Yeer and Lear. "Go!"

They nodded in terrified horror of what was happening around them, but heard the leader curse behind them, and then mutter, "I can't crawl with only one arm…" He yelled after them, "Seal the hole after you go through!" Lear opened his mouth to protest, but the leading yellow screamed, "Do it!"

Yeer and Lear leapt into the hole, with Yeer just behind Lear. Lear scrambled down the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry him, but Yeer spared the leader a parting glance. The leader stomped down on one monster's head with his left foot, but one other monster head butted him in the side. He fell over with a stifled yell, and the group of monsters was quickly upon him; he was gone.

Yeer desperately looked around for something to seal the hole with, and finally saw the carcass of a dead monster. He grabbed the body, and saw a monster staring at him and crawling towards him from the corner of his eye. He shuddered, and stuffed the monster's carcass into the hole, sealing it and preventing him from seeing the leader's final moments. The carcass's dead eyes blankly stared at Yeer; the monster very well could have been alive, for its eyes looked the same in death as in life.

Yeer came back to his senses from the shockingly terrifying trance as he heard chirps of protest on the other side of the carcass. He yelped, and began to crawl down the tunnel after Lear.

The carcass would not hold the monsters forever.

**Danger galore! Will our meager heroes last? Will they be trodden underneath the monsters? Find out soon! …Probably…**


	6. The Retreat to the Seed Pod

**Here we are again, rejoining the motley band as they flee from the monsters. Oh, what a wonderful world…**

Yeer coughed through the many pores covering his body as he emerged from the hole. Lear had thrown up some dust and dirt as he was crawling, which had caused Yeer some discomfort. However, they were out now; out of the hellhole.

Night time consumed the land, and only the bleak figures of five pikmin were noticeable to Yeer. Each one stood about; they were tired, frightened, and leaderless—all they could think of was their instinct; strength in numbers. They huddled together in fright, not only of the terrors they had escaped, but also of the nighttime; all pikmin had a synonymous fear of the unknown.

"We have to hurry back to the seed-pod," Yeer told his comrades, who were shivering in fright and cold; the barren wastes had become considerably colder now that the sun had fallen. "We have to tell the others about this!"

"The sun hasn't risen!" Lear spoke up. "They'll still be sleeping up in the clouds."

"There are no clouds," Another pikmin commented.

"Clouds or no Clouds, we will be waiting for them," Yeer said determinedly. A couple of pikmin, including Lear, nodded, while others simply continued to shiver. "First, though, we have to do something about this hole," Yeer commented. He spied a nearby rock, and dashed over to it with newfound determination. Lear and the others ran over as well, and helped him pick it up. They stumbled their way to where the hole entrance was, and shoved the rock in the hole; the hole was now impassable to the monsters they had seen, unless it was enlarged. "Let's go! Back to the camp!" Yeer shouted, involuntarily taking command. The group dashed for the seed-pod's last position, moving as fast as their legs would carry them.

"Those things," Lear asked Yeer in a trembling voice as they ran. "What were they?"

"Monsters. Mindless monsters…" Another pikmin spoke up, overhearing Lear. "They killed Yud…"

"Whatever they were," Yeer said, not knowing who Yud was, "The Chieftain must be warned about them. You saw how many there were down there. They could kill us all."

---

The five-pikmin squad trekked across the dunes as fast as they could go. They still had seen nothing but hills of barren wasteland, and the occasional rock. They had encountered no more living creatures, and they hoped not to, after what they had experienced. Each one was a prisoner in his own, terrified thoughts: the monsters would burrow out of the ground, use their jaws to get the unsuspecting pikmin around the neck…

Yeer knew he was scared, he knew that his terrified imagination was running rampant; yet, he still had time for some sane thought. _Those things are going to be held up by the blockage_, he thought. _I just wish we could have done something more…Ugh, I am tired…_

_I wonder if those things have anything to do with the wonderful landscaping job around here_, he thought. _Maybe_ _they live underground because there's nothing on top of the ground…Or maybe they are why there's nothing above the soil…_

A single, blinding ray of light broke into Yeer's thoughts, stunning him. He looked out at the glimmer of light, which seemed to be expanding. The other pikmin had seen it as well, and were staring out at it. Soon, it hit the group; the sun was rising.

Lear, and several other pikmin, cheered gleefully as the land began to brighten. Yeer lacked a mouth, but he would have grinned if he had one. "Alright," He said happily. "We won't have to wait now."

The pikmin charged ahead with even more energy, invigorated by the sun's rays. Yeer's feet and Lear's feet sped over the ground at a worthy speed of more than mere leaf pikmin. The rest of the group charged as well, and soon the seed-pod rose up in the distance. This only caused the pikmin to pick up the pace, running as fast as they could.

As they cleared one of the final hills, they began waving their arms and calling out to the others. The others were just starting their day, and most were still standing around the onion. They saw them, and began calling out in return.

The group screamed wildly as they charged up to the seed pod, and then stopped, heaving for breath from their exhausting run. Questions immediately began to flood their ears.

"Where were you?"

"Are you alright?"

"How did you survive through the night?"

"Did you find the ones who died?"

"Please, listen!" Lear yelled. The group immediately quieted, and the Chieftain broke through the crowd and stood over the five newcomers, who stared up at him as they gasped for breath.

"You survived?" He asked curiously. "I thought that you went out in a group with many more than five."

"We did," Lear said. Some of the other pikmin began whispering to one another.

"Chieftain, you must listen to us," Yeer said, looking up. "We went into a cave to get shelter from the darkness," He said quickly through the exhaustion.

"Yes?" The Chieftain asked. "Where is the rest of your group?"

"Chieftain," Yeer panted, looking up at his superior. "Inside the cave…"

"What?" The Chieftain asked, a tiny pang of nervousness working its way into his voice.

"Monsters…" Yeer said. "They tried to kill us all."

"What?" The Chieftain asked, disbelieving.

"We have to get out of here!" Yeer yelled.

And then, breaking the calamity of the vast dunes…

Clack, clack, clack.

_**That **_**doesn't sound pleasant! …Speaking of which, pleasant rhymes with pheasant…and now I'm hungry. **

**I'm also releasing this new line of advertisements for getting people to review. It does seem to involve the 'appeal to the bandwagon' fallacy, however. **

…**The Strength…the Power…The Courage to stand up and say what you care about. It is not only the strength of the typing fingers, but also of the spirit. **

**Glorify…Intensify…Criticize.**

**The few, the proud, the reviewers. **


	7. Fall of the Chieftain

**Go short chapter, its your birthday…**

**Final Exams are evil. Its as simple as that. Between the actual studying, the horrific stress caused by the finals and ****THE HALO 3 BETA**** (sort of funny how they release it when school really starts to pick up. Oh, the horror!), I probably won't be able to cram in all the juicy, mouth watering updates I've been giving at such rapid speed. Also, someone may try and put rat poison in one, so please—if you have any suggestions or remarks to make about the story, please speak your mind!**

"No! ...No!" One of the survivors yelled in shock, his eyes widening as he stared out in the direction that he had just ran from. He stumbled backwards, muttering to himself in sheer terror.

"What is it?" The Chieftain asked.

"That noise…" Yeer said. "They are coming!"

"Run! Flee for your lives!" The same terrified survivor (who had just been cowering at the noise of the approaching footsteps) yelled to the others. They stared at him in fright, and the clacking became much louder.

"Chieftain, we cannot fight," Yeer told the Chieftain. "There are too many of them."

"What are these things?" The Chieftain asked, confused.

"There's no time to explain," Lear said. "We have to leave!"

The clacking became almost deafening. There must have been a lot of the monsters. One curious pikmin ran towards the hill that the pikmin survivors had come from, and gazed out curiously. He yelled something to the others, but it was drowned out by the footsteps of the monsters.

"Get the seed-pod! Pick it up!" The Chieftain yelled to his subordinates, heeding Yeer's warning. "We are leaving!"

About twenty seven pikmin grabbed each leg of the seed-pod, and pushed the bottom half of the legs to the side, where they would be when the seed-pod was in flight. They hefted the pod, and began toting it away from the noise.

Yeer turned towards the noise, and saw a lone pikmin still staring out at the dunes. "Get down! Come back!" He called out to the pikmin, but it did not hear him. He continued calling to the pikmin, but he still did not hear. Yeer scrambled up to where the pikmin was, ready to pull him away if he had to.

Then, he saw it.

Over the many hills and dunes, a massive dark colored line marched. It was incredibly long, stretching over a massive distance; the edges moved and shuddered slightly.

The line was made up of tens and tens of the monsters, walking in formation.

They were tightly packed, and each had very little room. The line was about six monsters wide, and an unthinkable number long; there were at least two hundred of the creatures.

Yeer gazed out in horrified awe, as the line's head was coming straight towards him. He snapped out of the trance, and shook the pikmin next to him. The pikmin had a fearful look in its eyes, and was trembling at the sight. Yeer and the other pikmin glanced at each other, and then both turned tail and headed back towards the seed-pod.

"Leave it!" Yeer screamed wildly to the pikmin who were carrying the pod. "Leave it here, there's no time!" He continued screaming at the carriers, and the Chieftain (who stood to the side). Once they finally heard him, they stared incredulously; the seed-pod was a part of them all, and they were not going to leave it behind.

"Get a hold of yourself!" The Chieftain yelled to Yeer. "We cannot leave it behind!"

"We'll all die otherwise!" Yeer screamed. "They're closing fast!"

"You go ahead, then!" The Chieftain ordered Yeer. "Lead the ones who are ahead!"

"If we stay with the pod, we are going to die!" Yeer continued to argue. "Please-"

"GO!" The Chieftain bellowed over the thunderous footsteps of the monsters. He turned to the other pikmin carrying the onion, and began yelling orders to them. Yeer bowed his head, and charged after the pikmin in the lead. He did not turn back.

He ran and ran and ran, finally reaching the top of a high hill where about fifty pikmin were standing. Lear was there too, and he and Yeer exchanged sad glances. Lear pointed out towards the dunes, and Yeer trembled at what he saw.

The pikmin who had remained with the seed-pod were now all standing around it, not bothering to heft it. They were at the bottom of a hill, and the monsters began to climb the other side and pour down on them. Yeer could just make out war cries, and he could see the yellows engage the monsters at the foot of the hill. They grappled for the defense of the seed-pod, but were swiftly being overrun. As the last of the yellows were struck down, the Chieftain made his own last stand on the very top of the seed pod. The monsters crawled up the pod's sides, clacking mandibles eagerly. The Chieftain kicked and shoved them off of the top, but soon the entire pod was coated in the moving bodies of the monsters. As he turned to kick one in the face, it grabbed his foot with its jaws. He struggled to release his foot, but was about to fall from his precarious position. Another one of the beasts crawled up behind him, and grabbed him around the neck with its jaws. The Chieftain roared in pain, but was quickly killed. He rolled off of the side of the onion, which was now covered in the bugs.

Yeer, Lear, and the rest of the group stared out as they felt something leaving them. Their minds suddenly felt on the brink of destruction, almost as if something was missing. Then, as the seed-pod came crashing over into the ground, they felt it full circle.

They would never be the same.

**First of all, no, their spiritual loss is NOT connected to losing the Chieftain. It is, however, connected to losing the seed-pod. This will have special importance in chapters to come. **

**So, what next? A little bit of aftershock will spread through the survivors, a flashback, and the next moves of action. Soon, this quest will REALLY begin!**


	8. Aftermath

**Okay, allow me to explain why this is running late: Bungie, the company that creates the Halo games, released lots of new stuff in their most recent announcement. IGN took many pictures from the stuff and put them on the web. Naturally, all the excitement was too much for me and I went into a coma for a couple of weeks. I'm back now, though, and I'm also foaming at the mouth. Cool!**

They had stopped running now. They trudged across the dunes, not even caring very much if the massive horde reigned down upon them at any minute. The yellow pikmin looked like they had been forced in into a prison march, glumly staring down at their slow moving feet. Now that their seed-pod was gone, none of them knew what to do. It was as if they had all lost a parent; there was simply a blank sorrow, and in some cases, rage.

Lear was experiencing blinding fury, put did his best not to show it. He glared at the ground watching his feet make small imprints in the sand. Any second, he felt that he might scream, rant, and charge back towards the seed-pod's location, yelling and killing anything that got in his way. However, he had not done so yet, and settled for kicking up large amounts of dust.

Yeer, on the other hand, was feeling an intense, burning sorrow. It felt, to him, like one of the monsters had bitten off one of his arms or legs, or even his stem. There was nothing he could do to retrieve the missing part of himself, and he was scarred, beaten, wounded; unable to fight. There would never be any more shelter, any more protection—he would spend every dusk shivering from cold, and every day with nothing to do—all of the work he had done, all the time he had spent in his entire existence—reduced to nothing. He could no longer help his colony; though he survived, the colony was dead.

Other pikmin experienced different quantities of emotion, from sobbing uncontrollably to yelling in fits of rage. The fifty six pikmin strong group was now suffering pain none of them had ever experienced, no matter how long or short their lives might be.

As he trudged along sadly, Yeer could not help but reminisce about when he had first been born from the very seed-pod that had been destroyed…

---

Blinding light. That was all he could make out. Just…something. What was it? He'd never seen it before. Of course, he'd never seen anything before, so not having seen it previously was not such a major deal.

Where was he? What was this stuff he could feel buffeting into his body? It felt sort of…cold, but pleasant. He wondered what it was.

_Wind_, said something in the back of his mind.

He suddenly felt his feet—at least, he thought they were feet—touch something hard. He still could not really see, and settled for mumbling through the pores that covered his body. Slowly, he began to see more than just white.

His vision was blurry, but he looked straight down, trying to see his…What had the called them absentmindedly? Feet? Well, it was not important. Now, he could make out little yellow blobs surrounded by lots of brown. Eventually, he could see a bit better, and the yellow blobs took on a shape. He stared down at his legs blankly, and then tried to move on forward. To his slight surprise, the foot _did _move forward.

He looked around at all of the brown colored…stuff…that his feet were on. He looked to his right, and saw a small hole. Near the hole was some sort of drawing, apparently of some weird circle with lines coming out the sides.

_Circle? _Yeer thought curiously. _What's a circle?_

He looked up, away from the brown, and his eyes met with blue, lots of blue. In the middle of all the blue, however, there was a little glowing circle that looked like the one in the ground, only it was in a different place. He looked straight at the circle, and instantly regretted it; blinding white light immediately blocked his vision again.

_Sun_, he thought, though he did not know why.

Suddenly, he felt something grab him, just above one of his…_ arms. On the shoulder. _He whirled around, and was staring at a yellow thing with a stem on its head, two arms, and two legs. The thing also had two ears, and a scar on its chest. The creature also had a large flower on the top of its head.

"Yeer," was all the creature said as it stared at Yeer. Yeer stared right back.

"Huh?"

"Your name is Yeer."

---

It was dark again. Of course, normally, the pikmin would be happy and snug inside the seed-pod, but now, they had nowhere to go. They just sat there, trembling not only from the cold—but from fear as well. Pikmin all hated the dark, and these yellows were no exception. However, only a few of them realized that they would spend the rest of their lives sleeping on the ground at night—among the darkness that allowed predators to make swift ambushes.

Yeer and Lear were sitting on the ground on the top of a hill, staring down at most of the other pikmin, who had crowded together as a big group. Some were scattered around in the nearby area, sitting alone or with one or two companions. Yeer and Lear were sitting on the hill not only to watch the pikmin, but also to look out for dangers—namely, the monsters that had destroyed the onion.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Lear asked.

"I have no clue," Yeer said blankly. "I guess we'll just head back to the Brush, or something…I only spent four days there before we came here. Still, some of us were born in these Barrens."

"There's not much we can do except return to the Brush," A placid voice said from behind Yeer and Lear. The two turned their heads, and saw a fellow yellow pikmin. He had a bud on his stem, and looked very fatigued in appearance, almost as though he was tired. However, his clear and calm voice did not show any signs of being tired. "Name's Felow," he said pleasantly.

"Hello," Yeer said politely. "My name's Yeer."

"Lear," Lear mumbled his own name in introduction.

"I heard you two talking about our next plans of action," Felow said, sitting down between Yeer and Lear.

"Our _next _plans of action?" Lear asked. "We had plans previously?"

"Not really," Felow said. "However, the older members of the group already decided to head back towards the Brush as soon as the seed-pod went down."

There was a slight pause after this pikmin spoke of the seed pod, but Lear broke it. "What do you mean, 'the older members of the group'?" Lear asked again. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one days," Felow said shortly. Yeer and Lear stared at him in awe. Considering Yeer was only twelve days old, and Lear was 10 days old, 21 was quite impressive. "Still, you are correct; we will soon be heading towards the Brush."

"How do you think the pikmin will handle night time?" Yeer asked.

"I'm very confident many of us won't fall asleep for a few days," Felow said. "My nerves will probably be a wreck by the time the sun rises tomorrow." He then paused, and looked at Yeer and Lear. "Were you two some of the ones who went underground before the attack?"

Lear and Yeer paused, and then Lear quietly mumbled, "Yes."

"What was it like, down there?" Felow asked.

"Very dark," Yeer said shortly. "We couldn't see anything, pretty much."

"Well, it was pretty big down there," Lear said. "At first, we came down this tiny little hole, but then we found this giant cave down there that looked like it had been built."

"The first monster we saw came from that cave," Yeer added.

"You said it looked like it had been built?" Felow asked curiously.

"Well…sort of," Lear explained. "It looked like it had been expanded, like something had dug it bigger and bigger."

"Do you think it was those…things?" Felow asked.

"I don't know, but they were living down there," Yeer said.

"When we get to the Brush, you're going to have to tell the others what happened," Felow stated.

"Assuming we get there alive," Lear commented.

**Yeah, I have a couple more chapters already written, but I'm not going to post 'em today. **

**Oh, and V Rex, I will update Size 1 Shoes sometime. I actually had the next chapter written, but then my computer lost it…somehow…so I have to write it again. **

**So, what role do you think Felow will play? I'd tell you, but I'm too lazy.**


	9. Across the Barrens

**Wow…this one is barely even three pages in Word. Ugh.**

**But, on the plus side, there aren't as many stupid Eragon speaking descriptions. Kudos to V Rex for getting all of that info against those stupid, stupid books. **

The surviving pikmin traveled over masses of dunes, trudging along through the blistering sun, and then shivering from the sudden cold at night. They didn't encounter another living thing on their journey, though they feared an encounter with the monsters, or anything else that might live in the Barrens. Many of the pikmin did not sleep, spending the night wide-eyed and nervous. Others would occasionally drop from exhaustion, and other pikmin would take turns carrying the tired one.

And yet, the dunes rolled on and on, as far as the pikmin could see. The combination of sand and dirt and dust stretched far and wide, and occasionally some would float into the air, clogging a pikmin's pores and making it hard for him to breathe, or getting in his eyes and temporarily blinding him. The scorched, dead ground was becoming almost as much as a loathed enemy as the monsters who lived on it.

---

Lear squinted up, seeing the bright blue sky with a yellow, bright orb in the middle. He would have given anything to see something different in the sky, or something different on the ground.

He didn't know that his wish was about to be granted.

He trailed near the back of the group as they climbed up a long hill. Lear was very tired, but he was not the most fatigued. Some pikmin, many of them only two or three days old, trailed behind him.

Yeer was ahead in the group, closer to the front. As they clambered up the hill, he turned and looked at his tired friend. "Come on, Lear!" He yelled. In response, Lear simply grunted and continued up the hill. "If you did more work, this wouldn't be so tiring!" Yeer commented.

"If my leaf was heavier, I'd give you such a clubbing," Lear wheezed.

Yeer turned around and continued up the hill, with Lear a bit behind. When Lear was nearing the top, he could see that the pikmin who had already made it up had stopped and were talking to one another.

"What the…"

"Whoah, what is that?"

"I've never seen anything like it."

Lear got to the top, and moved through the crowd until he was near the front. He walked up next to Yeer, who was staring out at the object.

Which was, namely, a giant crevice in the ground.

It was about a foot in front of Lear, who was pretty much one of the closest pikmin to it. The land had suddenly turned into a massive cliff, and the ground abruptly ended. The edge looked like it jutted straight downwards, and the other side of the crevice was at least seven feet away. The crevice also stretched across the landscape for a very long distance.

Lear took a few steps forward, and then looked over the side of the cliff. He saw nothing buy a long, sheer drop, which lead to darkness farther down. "I can't see where it ends," He said.

"It's completely blocking our path to the left," Felow said, who was standing next to Yeer. "We'll have to find another way around."

After about half a minute, the pikmin group started moving off to the right side of Lear. "…Wait, so are you saying we have to find _another_ way?" He asked. Felow did not reply. "Oh, come on!" Lear groaned.

---

Yeer thought that they had been walking for three days now. However, he wasn't exactly sure—maybe it had been four?

More importantly, did it even matter?

_No, it doesn't really matter_, Yeer thought. _I mean, we'll get there when we get there…if we get there._

Yeer was a little concerned about some of the pikmin who were becoming very tired. The heat was sweltering, and many of them had gotten little rest, but they could not stop until they got to the Brush.

Felow, Yeer noticed, was not very tired at all. _Having a bud probably helps him, since its better than a leaf. Shouldn't it be heavier, though? It doesn't make sense how having more weight to carry would give you more stamina. Does it?_

_Does it matter?_

Yeer never actually answered this question, because he heard a yell of excitement from a pikmin ahead of him. Breaking out of his trail of thought, he looked up at the pikmin, immediately alert for danger. The pikmin was pointing out at something in the distance. Yeer looked out in the direction that the pikmin was pointing, and saw the faint outline of things that were tall, and big, and unmoving.

"Trees," He said quietly.

"The Brush!" The pikmin who had first spotted the trees said excitedly. "We're getting close!"

Many of the pikmin found new energy, and jumped for joy or cheered. Yeer looked over at Lear, who had a look of joy on his face. Yeer then looked at Felow, who looked very relieved to see the first signs of non-hostile life for a very long time.

"At last," Felow said. "It will take us, perhaps, one more day to reach the border of the Brush. Soon, we will be free of this deceased land!"

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm off to watch some fireworks. Happy 4****th!**


	10. Arrival

**Can't think of anything to say.**

…**Oh, wait, here's something: in about a week or so, I'm going away to a different state for a few weeks…I think three…Anyways, though, I probably won't be able to use a computer (except once or twice). During the quick intervals when I can use a computer, I'll try and get back to speed on any updates by you guys that I missed. Or, I'll be looking at the Smash Brothers website. Or, more probably, I'll be looking at the Halo 3 website. Seriously though, sorry if I miss anything important. **

The group of pikmin kept trudging with renewed vigor, and they were already a good distance by the time the sun had begun to set. However, the night caused them to halt their progress and wait until the sun would rise again.

As he had predicted, Felow got little sleep during the journey. He spent most of the night sitting down, staring out at the darkened landscape. He sat in complete silence, and whether he was keeping watch or simply restless, Yeer and Lear could not tell.

Those two, on the other hand, were sleeping far better than most of the yellows. They still did not have a full night's sleep, and were prone to waking up at random intervals in the night, but they did manage to get a good deal of rest. Many of the pikmin, mostly the older ones, spent the majority of the nighttime talking amongst themselves about what the creatures could be, or perhaps what the reaction of their comrades at the Brush would be. Though they did argue about many topics, they would all agree that the pikmin who lived in the Brush would not take the loss of a seed-pod lightly.

The sun rose the next day, and Felow gazed at it appreciatively. Lear and Yeer were sleeping nearby, but Yeer quickly awoke. Lear needed a bit of encouragement in waking up, spending a couple of minutes mumbling "I don't want to collect any berries today," in a state of partial slumber. However, soon he was woken up, and the pikmin squad got moving not long after.

Yeer was happy that he would be returning to the Brush, and spent a lot of time talking to Felow about it. Felow had told him many stories about the Brush, and they were things that Yeer had not known or learned in his four days there. Lear probably should have been more interested in the tales than Yeer, considering Lear had only spent a meager two days in the Brush, but he was usually to groggy or exhausted to pay attention.

The yellows continued to get closer and closer to the Brush. Before long, the group of yellow pikmin clambered up a final hill, and the outskirts of the Brush were only a few yards away. Excitedly, some of the more energetic pikmin broke into a sprint, running for the forestation. Yeer dashed right for it, outpacing many other yellows.

He watched as the ground he crossed seemed to become more and more lush. At first, it was just dust and dirt under his feet. As he continued running, he noticed a bit of the dust seemed to be disappearing. He continued dashing, and the ground under his feet felt less hard, a little better on the feet. Soon, he was running over leaves, and after a bit he was dodging blades of grass that reached higher than his stem. Eventually he stopped running; he was at the doorstep of the Brush, with a massive tree, a great column of nature, just a few inches in front of him. He was back.

Other pikmin began running past him, jumping for joy at the greenery. Some rolled on the ground, rolling on fallen leaves or good soil. Others ran for the foot of the tree and collapsed in the shade. Meanwhile, many stared up at the forestation, much like Yeer.

Felow came up behind Yeer, chuckling at the excitement of the other pikmin. "It is great to be back under the trees," He said happily. A few seconds later, Lear arrived next to Yeer at a slow run, and then collapsed as a heaving mass on the ground nearby.

"Oh, sweet green things!" He said in joy, looking at the masses of green plants around him. "I've missed you so much!" He looked up at Yeer, and said joyously, "Finally, some time to rest!"

"Not quite," Felow said. "We still must alert the rest of the yellows to what happened."

Lear paused, looking a bit discouraged, but Yeer nodded quickly. "Still, many of us will want to rest," Yeer pointed out, knowing that the group of pikmin who had rolled in the ground or jumped into the shade were very tired.

"I'm sure some of the group will not accompany us," Felow said. "But many of us will not falter." He walked past the other two, and continued walking farther away as he added, "We must continue."

Yeer and Lear glanced at him, before Yeer turned to Lear (who was still on the ground) and said, "He's right, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lear replied, getting up. The two then hurried to catch up to their companion.

Traveling through the Brush was far better than traveling through the Barrens. The ground in the Brush was not as hard, and painful on the soles of the feet. Also, parts of the Barrens were susceptible to randomly shifting under the feet, causing the pikmin to slip. In the Brush, the ground felt a bit softer, and many fallen leaves created a blanket over the ground. Plants, mainly bushes and trees, were everywhere, giving the yellows some shade. In contrast, the Barrens gave no mercy against the murderous sun.

Then again, there were some bad things about traveling through the Brush.

Creatures were everywhere, though they were all mostly very small. Since the outskirts of the Brush were rarely occupied by pikmin, a multitude of large beasts lived there. Dwarf orange bulborbs were common, and the pikmin gave them a good distance. Burrow-nits were waiting to ambush the pikmin, but the yellows knew their tricks and easily avoided them. Creeping Chrysanthemums lurked beneath the ground with only their eyes and fake flower stalks showing, waiting for unsuspecting creatures of a lesser size to get too close. Pikmin, being from a close genus to the Chrysanthemums, paid them no mind; still, both the pikmin and the Creeping Crysanthemums eyed one another warily.

Not all of the pikmin had accompanied the major group; many had stayed behind to rest for a bit. The pikmin group was now about thirty strong, as opposed to the previous fifty six.

---

The group was just walking through a large clearing when several of the pikmin stopped and paused. Yeer and Lear kept walking, but then they saw that Felow had stopped and was looking about the clearing anxiously.

Yeer was about to ask him what was wrong, but Felow began first. "Do you two hear that?" He asked quietly as his eyes darted around the clearing.

"Uh, no," Lear said, not knowing what Felow was talking about. "I—"

"Shh!" Felow hissed. "Listen!"

The entire group of pikmin had stopped now, trying to hear the noise—or hearing it. Yeer eventually heard it, and immediately became alert.

Since yellow pikmin do not have very much interaction with water, it would be hard for them to describe anything as being wet or waterlogged. This noise, however, could easily be described as being very wet; it sounded like some slimy or wet object was being quickly pounded against the ground. The sound was very fast, and it was definitely getting louder and louder.

The pikmin looked in every direction, but they could not see anything. Felow surveyed one side of the clearing, while Lear nervously and frantically spun and looked in every direction. Yeer simply stood there, trying to find the source of the sound.

It became louder and louder. Soon, it sounded like it was right on top the yellows. Many backed towards the center of the clearing and grouped together. Yeer brought up his hands and made fists.

Suddenly, the noise stopped. As randomly as it had begun, it stopped. The pikmin continued to look around for about thirty seconds before they relaxed.

One let out a sigh of relief, and then asked, "What was that all about?"

Then, there was a slightly different noise. It sounded like a hatch opening, and then a large booming sound. That was quickly followed by the sound of some sort of projectile sailing through the air, making a sort of screeching sound. Yeer looked up in time to see three bright blobs descend through the sky and land on the central group of pikmin.

The explosion that followed the blobs hitting the pikmin sent Yeer flying back, soaring a foot before hitting the side of a large tree trunk. Screams of terror and pain surrounded him. He could here another voice yelling out, trying to calm the pikmin down. Yeer's vision went blurry for a second, but he still noticed the thing that had walked up to the side of the clearing, and was now standing atop a large rock that was elevated a couple of inches above the pikmin.

The creature was very strange. It had two, long legs with round, almost rubber-like feet. The two long legs supported a massive, bloated body. The beast was covered in scales, and also had a large, curved, rectangular piece of metal attached to the front of its body. All of the scales below the bottom of the metal rectangle, which began about a third of the way up the monster's body, were deep green. The other scales were a bright orange. Two slender rods covered in orange scales rose up from just behind the top of the creature's spherical body. At the very end of these rods were large funnels that were giving off bits of smoke. At the very back of the creature was a fin, bright blue and webbed, yet in a very fixed position. In front, two short eyestalks came out horizontally on either side of the metal, holding oval shaped, large eyes. The last distinguishing feature of the beast was its mouth, which was shaped like a large nozzle, or a cannon. The pinkish, yet metallic looking nozzle was sticking out of a hatch below the creature's metal plate, which had orange scales around it instead of the surrounding green ones.

In short, Yeer had never seen anything like it before.

The creature slowly moved to the left of the rock, away from Yeer, and pointed its nozzle at a pikmin who was yelling at the others and trying to calm the yellows down. The beast fired three more right blobs with a loud boom, and the blobs arced through the sky, leaving a slight trail of whisp-like smoke behind them. The three blobs landed on the pikmin, and quickly detonated, sending other pikmin nearby flying.

Yeer weakly got to his feet, determined to see if his friends had survived the carnage. He quickly called out Lear's name several times, and, after receiving no response, called out Felow's name. Again, no response came.

Yeer then spotted four of his comrades charge towards the monster with battle cries. They flung themselves at it, but went flying into the metal piece, which the beast had moved slightly downwards to block them like a shield. The four yellows fell to the ground with cries of pain, and the monster launched three more blobs right on top of them, swiftly destroying them. The creature's tail suddenly twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, and the smoke stacks that were above its body let out large puffs of smoke.

A pikmin ran up to Yeer, through the carnage that had been created. Yeer noticed almost immediately that it was Lear. "We have to get these pikmin organized." He said quickly. "That monster's already killed about ten yellows!"

"Where are the rest? Have you seen Felow?"

Lear shook his head. "He might have been killed, or run off, I don't know." Yeer noticed then through the corner of his eye that the beast had pointed its nozzle towards them.

"Look out!" Yeer shouted. Lear quickly saw too, and the two ran off towards the other side of the clearing as the monster fired off three more mortars. They landed precisely where Lear and Yeer had been standing, but just before they hit the dirt, Yeer shouted, "Take cover!"

That didn't help very much. The mortars thudded into the ground and exploded violently, lifting Yeer off his feet and throwing him forwards, where he hit the ground with a thud. He lifted his face out of the dirt and looked around to see Lear was already picking himself up. Yeer jumped up quickly as watched to see the creature's next move.

"We have to attack it!" Lear yelled.

"We'd have no chance from the front," Yeer said in response. "It uses that sheet of metal to block every attack!"

Just as Yeer finished talking a group of about fifteen yellows leapt out of a group of plants near the beast, and leapt onto its left flank, the creature grunted from the impact, and for a short second the battle cries of the yellows who had grabbed onto the beast overpowered the uproar of the wounded or frightened yellows below. The attacking pikmin used their stems as clubs, mercilessly pounding at the monster's scales. Yeer saw Felow, who was among the attacking yellows, let go of the monster with one hand and raise his fist in victory.

Unfortunately, that was the exact moment when the beast decided to shake itself wildly in attempt to dislodge the attackers. This attempt was very affective, and the group of pikmin went flying off the monster and landed on the ground nearby. Yeer saw Felow, who had only been holding on with one hand, tumble to the ground and look up at the monster. Yeer ran towards him to try and help him, but the monster raised his nozzle and fired three more mortars, which sailed towards the disoriented attackers. Felow had his eyes fixed on the monster, and Yeer kept running, trying to help him. He heard someone shout out a warning just as he reached out his hand to grab Felow—

Then, he felt the ground below him shudder from the detonation of the mortars. He could feel his body lift off of the ground and go flying, but then…

Nothingness.

**Everybody wants Gatling Groink fighting…those mortars were fast as lightning…**

**I'll try and cram in a couple more (maybe even a **_**few **_**more) chapters before I leave.**


	11. Consequences

**Alright, I was out of town for three days, so I couldn't update. However, I was able to get plenty of writing in, so I happen to have almost three chapters (as in two an almost all of the third one) ready after this one. I plan to update once again today, then once or twice tomorrow, unless something comes up. Then, I'll be out of town for three weeks with a good chance of having no internet access. **

**This one is pretty short, but I think that the one after this will be one that all readers can enjoy, at least to some extent.**

Everything was blurry. All he could see for a second was a blur of brown, which turned into soil after a few moments. However, he could feel himself being dragged along, and something was holding him by the stem.

Yeer groggily pulled his face out of the dirt, and tried to get a glimpse of whatever was pulling him. He noticed it was a yellow, but he could not tell if it was a familiar face, because his vision was still blurred. "Hey, let go of my stem!" He yelled, but it came out as more of a mumble in his current state.

The other pikmin turned around and looked at Yeer. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were awake," The pikmin said, dropping Yeer's stem.

Yeer immediately recognized the voice. "Lear?" He asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me," The pikmin responded. Lear moved a few feet away and sat down on a small rock.

"Ugh, my head," Yeer groaned, getting up.

"You took a pretty bad hit. I'm surprised you lived, actually," Lear pointed out.

"What happened to Felow?" Yeer asked.

"Dead," Lear said shortly, not trying to think about it. "When you went to help him, he didn't live through the blast. The monster thought that you didn't, either, so it just left you for dead after the fight."

"Felow is dead?" Yeer asked sadly.

"Yes. From what I could see, you and I were the only survivors."

"You mean…everyone died?" Yeer said, shocked.

"Well, a lot of pikmin just ran away during the fight. I couldn't find any other survivors other than you who actually fought, though. After the monster won, it just walked off."  
"So…we're alone, now?"

"Essentially," Lear answered bitterly. "We still need to get to the rest of the yellows, though. Any idea which direction we should go in?"

"No," Yeer said. "I can't remember at all. I only spent one day in the company of the other seed-pods."

"Well, I didn't spend any, so were essentially lost. I figured we should just keep going in the direction we were headed before the attack. I mean, the older pikmin must have been going in the right direction, right?"

"I guess," Yeer said. "First, though, we should try and get a vantage point so we might be able to see far away, and we might be able to see the other seed-pods."

"What do you mean, 'vantage point'?"

"You know, somewhere high up."

"Well, the highest place would be in the trees, but we both know that the trees are filled with monsters." Lear pointed out.

"Yeah, but if we're going the wrong way, we might go past the seed-pods, and never find them."

"Good point." Lear said, and then added, "And, since we might be the only people left who know about the monsters in the Barrens…"

"We have to let the rest of the yellows know," Yeer finished. "But, what about the yellows who stopped to rest? They still know too, right?"

"Well, they are probably going to take the same path we did, and I saw the monster go down the path…" Lear explained, having no need to finish the statement. He was quite confident that Yeer knew what he meant. "So, we're just going to risk going into the trees?"

"I'm afraid so," Yeer replied.

---

Yeer and Lear had begun to climb up the side of a tree. It was not easy work, to say the least; they were climbing up the bark at almost a ninety degree angle, and the only footholds and handholds they got were slight indents in the tree's bark. They were climbing right alongside one another, and engaged in conversation as they did.

"So, what happened to you after the monster's explosives took me out?"

"Well, Yeer, you know how that explosion sent you flying?"

"Yeah."

"It also sent a lot of other stuff flying, too," Lear began. "Oh, look, there's a big branch right over there."

"Oh, good. Lets head for that. So, anyway, what were you saying?"

"Oh, right. So, when you went flying into the air ant became unconscious, I was watching to see if you were okay. Since I wasn't paying attention to my own safety, I didn't see this big rock that had gone flying that was coming towards me."

"What happened?"

"Well, the rock hit me, and knocked me onto my back while winding me pretty bad, too. Then, the stupid rock _landed_ on me, so I couldn't move or anything."

"That must have been a pain."

"Yeah, literally. Still, it sort of saved my life."

"Really? How?"

"The monster didn't think I was alive, or just didn't see me, so it moved off. If the rock hadn't blocked its view of me, it probably would have killed me pretty quickly. Still, it sure did hurt."

"It certainly sounds like it would. Oh, look, we're almost up to that branch."

By the time the two yellows scrabbled up onto the lowest branch of the tree, it was almost night time. They stopped to regain their stamina, and then surveyed the surrounding landscape.

"See anything?" Yeer asked.

"No, nothing," Lear replied sadly. "I don't even see any monsters…but I guess we should be happy about that."

"I guess we'll just have to climb higher," Yeer said with a sigh.

It was as the two were clambering up towards the next branch (and were about halfway there) that they saw what they were looking for.

Though the sun still had yet to set, it was getting rather close to that time. Yeer was focusing on pulling himself up the tree, arm after arm, when he first saw a yellowish object far off to his left. "Look!" He yelled to Lear, who had lagged behind and was now a little way below him.

Yeer saw what was undoubtedly a yellow seed-pod in the process of taking off. It was located in a small clearing in the distance, and the clearing was actually on a ground level lower than the ground nearby—an odd place to land, surely. He couldn't make out the shapes of any pikmin nearby the seed-pod, but it sluggishly raised about a foot into the air as the three supportive legs folded in. It then rose higher and higher, eventually surpassing the two pikmin in height and then breaking through the tree canopy above. A couple of seconds afterward, two more seed-pods, both yellow, followed it into the sky.

Lear watched them go and cheered. "Alright!" He yelled happily. "Now we now where to go!"

"Yeah," Yeer agreed happily, before adding, "But first we have to get back down off of this tree."

"Oh." Lear said, sounding a little less excited now. "Right."

The two began to try and step downwards, which was very precarious. It took them a long time getting down, but eventually, they made it to the first branch. By the time they were there, however, both were quite exhausted.

"I'm starting to think this was a bad idea," Lear said though coughs. "I mean, we still would have seen the seed-pods fly into the sky if we had stayed on the ground, right?"

"…Let's not dwell on that," Yeer suggested, though he had also realized that ascending the tree was a bit worthless. "We'll get our breath back here, and then head back down." He paused, and said, "Actually, we might want to stay up here, since the sun is already setting."

"Yeah," Lear said, looking out in the direction of the sun, which was barely visible through the thick forest. "We don't want to risk going down there, with all those deadly monsters."

A slight wind blew through the branches, but it was so soft it did not even trouble the pikmin. "Maybe we should…" Yeer started, but then looked at Lear, who had his eyes fixed on the higher levels of the tree. "Lear?" He asked curiously. When Lear still did not respond, and kept looking up into the thicker branches, Yeer began to get worried. "What is it?" He asked nervously. "What do you see?"

Lear continued scanning the upper canopy for a few seconds, but then lowered his glance again. "Sorry," He said. "It was nothing. I just thought, for a second…" He glanced back up into the branches, but quickly looked back. "Nah, it was nothing." He finished.

"Okay. So, anyway—" Yeer started again, but did not finish the statement.

Something quickly swooped down from the tree's higher levels and headed right for the pikmin from behind. Lear turned around and screamed, but it was muffled as the monster was upon them.

**Yeah, I guess it is sort of a cliffhanger…but, I'll be updating soon, providing I already haven't when you're reading this…**


	12. Predator and Prey

**Okay, I realize I didn't update yesterday evening, and I was supposed to. You see, I ended up seeing the new Harry Potter movie, and when I got home I forgot. The movie was okay, I guess, but I'm actually not a very big fan, so…yeah.**

**This entire chapter is essentially a battle, so I hope you guys enjoy.**

Yeer felt a thud, and then he was falling.

He turned in the air and saw Lear falling just above him. Just above Lear he saw a clawed hand, and then a blur of movement, but he could not get a good look at the claw's armor. It did not take him long to realize that the fall to the ground would kill him.

Suprisingly, though, he was not screaming as he fell. Lear, however, was yelling his head off and flailing his arms wildly. Yeer looked around to see if anything was nearby, anything he could grab; suddenly just as he was nearing the ground, with the wind screaming past (though not drowning out Lear's yells), he saw salvation.

Near the point where he would hit the ground, a lone leaf from the twisting branch of a small plant pointed out into the sky. It was curved like the point of a spade, and would barely be in his reach. However, since it was his only hope, Yeer reached out to grab it as he plummeted towards death.

By some miracle, Yeer mamaged to grab the end of the leaf. Suddenly, however, he almost lost his grip when he felt something heavy grab his own foot. He couldn't see what had grabbed him, but he had a pretty good idea. He noticed that the constant screams of Lear had been replaced by a quick "Woah!" and had then ceased.

"…Hey, Yeer?" Lear asked, just clinging onto Yeer's left foot.

"Yeah?" Yeer grunted as he tried to hang on, holding both his own weight and Lear's.

"…Don't let go, okay?"

"I'll try not to…" Yeer began, but then something caught his attention. He looked up a little, and saw the large claw he had seen earlier. It was swinging slightly in place, and the opposite arm was a bit separated. Yeer could see the beginnings of the arms, but they were very long. He looked up to see the monster that had the long arms, and was shocked.

Hovering in place on the other side of the leaf was a massive bug that had two lanky arms. The creature lacked legs, and its body was simply a large brown blob with thin white rings around it in a couple of places. The blob started to get smaller and smaller, but then ended abruptly. On top of the massive blob sat a white colored sphere with two large red eyes. On top of the head were two antennae that were covered in almost feathery looking points. The antennae were flapping rapidly, somehow keeping the rest of the creature in the air. The long arms attached to the blob just below the head.

This particular creature was one Yeer was familiar with; a Swooping Snitchbug.

"Uh…Lear?" Yeer asked nervously.

"Yes, Yeer?" Lear asked curiously.

"Brace yourself." Yeer told him. The Swooping Snitchbug raised one of its claws.

"Why? What are you talking abou—" Lear began. While he was speaking, the Snitchbug lunged at Yeer, who dodged the attack by letting go of the leaf. This time, both Yeer and Lear yelled as they fell.

Fortunately, the two yellows were not falling from as high up this time. They fell about a foot—enough to give them bruises—but not kill them. Two consecutive thuds ran through the air. The pikmin pulled themselves off the ground, and then saw the Snitchbug in the air, towering over them. They both got into defensive positions, raising their fists and crouching a bit.

The Snitchbug flew at them, claws outstretched to grab, and the yellows jumped in different directions. Yeer jumped to his left and rolled across the ground, quickly pulling himself up in recovery, Lear simply threw himself to the right, hitting the dirt with another thud. He slowly picked himself up, but it didn't really matter; the Snitchbug still hadn't made another move.  
It glared at each pikmin in turn, but focused on Yeer. Yeer glared right back, and raised his fists. The Snitchbug swooped at him, and he once again leapt out of the way. Knowing that he could not dodge forever, Yeer looked around for some way to defend himself. He saw a twig, low to the ground but attached to the small plant that had also been the owner of the leaf, and got an idea. He ran for it, and looked over his shoulder to see the Snitchbug glaring at him. He turned around, facing the bug, and pulled the twig very far back from its original position, almost breaking it from the tension.

The Snitchbug flew at him, and when it was just an inch away from Yeer, he let go of the twig. It flew back towards its original position and hit the Snitchbug right in what Yeer assumed was his stomach. This caused the Snitchbug to go flying back a bit, and then hit the ground with a thud. Yeer heard Lear cheer, but Yeer quickly noticed that the twig had broken. He then looked at the Snitchbug, which slowly picked itself up and shot a fierce glare Yeer. Yeer took a couple of steps backwards, but he could nrot get out of the reach of the Snitchbug's long arm's and quick lunge; it grabbed him in one hand and held the squirming pikmin up so that they could each see one another eye to eye; Yeer looked into the glaring bug's eyes and felt only one thing: fear.

He cried out for help, and Lear panicked, looking for some way to help his friend. He knew if he tried to attack head-on, the monster would simply pluck him up in his free hand. He looked around desperately, and saw a tiny pebble lying nearby. He picked it up, and, with no other option, frantically flung it at the Snitchbug.

As the beast was still glaring at Yeer when a small stone conked it over the right side of its head. Its whirled around, still with a death grip on Yeer, and saw Lear standing there. It looked at Yeer again, then back at Lear, then back at Yeer. It then looked at Lear once more, and flung Yeer aside into the dirt; the bug had changed targets.

Lear looked around for another projectile, but he knew that he would not have time to grab one when the Snithbug flew at him. He jumped out of the way, and the Snitchbug flew past, but quickly turned and came in for another attack. Lear cowered and ducked as the Snitchbug reached out to grab him, but Yeer came out of nowhere; he jumped over Lear and leapt at the Snitchbug, slamming his stem right between the bugs eyes.

The Snitchbug recoiled in pain, and both Yeer and Lear regained their composure. They stood to their full height, and Lear said shortly, "Thanks."

"Not a problem," Yeer said calmly. Then they both gave their full attention to the Swooping Snitchbug, which flew up farther into the air. It then shook a fist at them, and then flew away from them.

Lear and Yeer stared in the direction it had gone, and then Lear asked, "Do you think it left?"

"I don't know," Yeer said, but as soon as he had said it the bug flew back into view, holding a stout red cylinder in its lanky hands. Yeer and Lear recognized this item immediately; it was a red pellet from a common plant, the Pellet Posy.

Yeer realized what the bug's next move would be, and shouted, "Hit the dirt, now!" Yeer immediately leapt to his right as the Snitchbug tossed the pellet, like a disc, towards the pair of pikmin. It ripped through the air and spun right ino Lear's stomach, winding him and knocking him over. The pellet then landed on him.

Yeer quickly yelled, "Lear, are you alright?" and received a pained groan as a response, which insinuated that Lear was alive. Yeer then had to jump on the ground, lying flat on his back as the Snitchbug attempted to grab his stem. It missed, and flew past Yeer slowly, underestimating his recovery time. Yeer leapt up and latched onto the Snitchbug's back, and proceeded to club him violently with his stem. The Snitchbug winced in pain, and flew higher into the air before shuddering violently, sending Yeer flying downwards where he hit the ground with yet another painful thud.

Yeer weakly looked up to see the Snitchbug floating an inch in the air above him, glaring down at him as he rubbed his hands together. Yeer was flat on the ground, and as soon as he moved, the bug would grab him. There would be no escape; the bug had caught him.

The bug raised its right hand to grab him, and Yeer noticed a red thing flying through the air towards the bug's head.

With a whack, the short red cylinder bonked the Snitchbug on the head. He bug crossed its large eyes, and its antennae flapped less and less as the bug's flight pattern became more precarious. It wobbled through the air in a daze above Yeer as the red cylinder landed next to Yeer; he recognized it as a red pellet.

Suddenly, another projectile hit the bug on the head—this time, it was Lear. Lear's slam into the Snitchbug, combined with the velocity of his fall, was to much for the Snitchbug to stay airborne. Its antennae began to stop flapping, and it began to fall. "Get out of the way!" Lear yelled to Yeer, who rolled away as far as he could.

The Snitchbug hit the ground as Lear held onto its back for his life. The Snitchbug looked up, and saw Yeer still on the ground staring at the Snitchbug. The Snitchbug weakly raised up a hand to try and grab Yeer, but it was to no avail; eventually, the bug's eyes faintly dimmed, and its hand fell back down, still outstretched towards its target.

Lear stared at the bug from atop it, and then jumped down next to Yeer, and held out a hand. Yeer grabbed it, and Lear pulled him to his feet.

"Thanks," Yeer said breathlessly, still tired.

"Don't thank me," Lear said. "Thank the fact that that bush had a branch there."

Yeer looked up, and saw a branch with a leaf on the end. He then realized, since it was higher up than the Snitchbug, but directly above where it had been when it was about to catch him, that the branch must have been where Lear had dropped the pellet from, and then jumped himself. "That was smart," He complimented.

"Thanks!" Lear said, but then both turned around to hear a humming sound. The humming sound, they realized, was actually a pair of antennae flapping. The Snitchbug had flown into the air yet again, and now looked really, really annoyed. It glared at the two pikmin, floating about a foot in the air. "Does this thing ever quit?" Lear yelled angrily as the two pikmin once again got into defensive positions. As they did, several things happened.

The Snitchbug brought up its hands, preparing to swoop. The last rays of the sun went down. Mainly, however, the ground directly below the Snitchbug seemed to explode, throwing up clods of dirt.

The rumbling of the earth threw Lear into the air, sending him flying backwards. Yeer fell over, and raised a hand to protect his face as he laid on his left flank. It was not the pieces of dirt or flying stones that he was trying to protect himself from, however, something had risen from the very ground.

At first, it seemed to be a yellow point with two small holes on one side. However, as it grew out of the ground towards the Snitchbug, Yeer realized that it was two separate, bonelike parts; a beak. The beak continued to grow, becoming longer and slightly wider. Then, the beak stopped, and a ball of bright white feathers followed it. In the ball of bright feathers were two gleaming eyes, fixed on the Snitchbug directly above, which seemed frozen in terror. After the blob of feathers came a long blue, scaled neck that seemed to be almost serpent-like. This long blue neck—or perhaps body—rose out of the ground until the beak was in reach of the Snitchbug; the yellow beak opened wide and the monster made a cawing noise before the beak closed around the bloblike abdomen of the Snitchbug.

Time seemed frozen for a second as Yeer stared on in horror, not daring to move. He looked at first at the Snitchbug, which seemed to be writhing as best it could in attempt to escape the clamping beak of the monster. He then turned his attention to the blob of feathers, which could only be the creature's head; He spotted two evil-looking eyes among the feathers, which were fixed on the Snitchbug; however, as if in a nightmare, the eye on the side that Yeer could see slowly moved and focused on Yeer as the head twisted slightly in his direction. Yeer stared back in terrified awe.

Then, suddenly, the monster reversed the process; it retreated back into the ground, the blue scaled body going first, followed by the evil head, followed by the beak, which was followed by the terror struck Snitchbug, which was raising a hand towards the sky. Finally, the end of the Snitchbug's long hand disappeared into the ground, and after a slight rumbling, there was silence.

If only for a second.

"RUN!" Yeer screamed in terror through the darkness of the night.

**I'll update after lunch, maybe. Then probably again in the evening.**

**Oh, what am I talking about? I'll clearly forget, probably…Well, we'll see…**


	13. Mission Accomplished

**I remembered.**

**This might be the last update, it might not be. I really don't know. Uh oh, unlucky thirteen…**

Yeer and Lear ran through the forest floor as fast as their legs could carry them. Mainly, they were trying to get as far away from where the Snitchbug had been eaten as possible, but both of them knew that nighttime brought with it the most powerful and deadly predators. Already, they could hear monsters roaring in the distance.

The two sped across fallen leaves and branches, and had fortunately not seen any predators yet. That changed when they ran around a corner and saw a large orange bulborb ripping into the carcass of a small breadbug. The two slowly crept back around the corner (which was a high ascension of rocks and dirt, and Yeer whispered to Lear, "We have to find safe shelter somewhere away from these predators."

"Lets head in the direction of the place where the seed-pods took off from," Lear suggested. "That way, we'll be closer when they come back in the morning."

"Sounds good," Yeer said. "Let's go." The two were about to begin trotting in the other direction when they heard another loud set of roars, which frightened them even more. They set off at a much quicker pace, allowing their fear to fuel them.

They continued to dash through the brush, seeing very little but hearing a lot, until they got to the top of a large hill of soil. They looked down on one side of the hill and saw a small pond, with a large number of yellow wollywogs and wogpoles in the deepest point. Near the outside were a trio of bulbear cubs, two of which were devouring a dead yellow wollywog that looked like a fresh kill. The third was standing a little bit into the water, and had at dead wogpole in its jaws. The wogpole's tail hung limply out of the creature's maw as it took its find back towards the other two bulbear cubs.

"We'll have to take a detour," Yeer said. "These cubs always follow around the adult predators, so a really big one must be nearby."

"Let's go that way," Lear said, pointing to a small canyon of dirt forged a ways to the right of the pond. "C'mon."

The two ran through the canyon for a long time, but then Lear caught sight of something. "Look!" He whispered to Yeer, pointing at a large rock wedged into a hill of dirt. There was a gap between the ground and the rock, but it was very slim; however, it was fairly long. "We can hide in there until daybreak," He said. "No predator could fit inside."

"Good idea," Yeer said as they headed for the small shelter. Yeer scrambled inside and crawled to the very end of the shelter, where he was lying on his side. A few smaller rocks were inside the shelter, Yeer noticed, and if a predator did come they could simply block the wedge of space they had come through with the smaller rocks. Lear was still outside the hole, however. "What are you doing?" Yeer asked curiously.

Lear looked around for a second, and then grabbed two leaves of the ground nearby. He crammed one in the hole in Yeer's direction, and said, "Here."

"Oh. Thanks," Yeer said as Lear scrambled in. Lear crawled over on the other side of a large rock, separated from Yeer by sight. Yeer dragged the leaf inside the shelter as best he could, and then laid on it for comfort.

"Good night, Yeer," Lear whispered. It was hard to hear, especially with the rocks separating them. Roars of beasts also tried to drown out the statement, but Yeer heard.

"Night," Yeer whispered back.

---

Yeer awoke suddenly, without any blurry confusion or wincing from bright light. He looked around the shelter quickly and saw everything—well, everything he could see in the shelter, anyway, to be just as it had been. Apparently, no monster had attacked.

_Well, I guess I'm eighteen days old now,_ Yeer thought, calculating all the days the pikmin had been traveling for plus his age before the seed-pod was destroyed.

The light of day was actually not very illuminating in the crevice because it was at a bad angle. For the most part, the shelter was not very different than it had been at night. This quickly lead Yeer to believe that he might have slept through a portion of the day, and therefore might be running late. They had to reach the other yellow seed-pods as quickly as possible, and oversleeping certainly would not speed them towards that goal.

"Lear?" He whispered, wondering if Lear was awake. Receiving no answer, he said far louder, "Lear, are you awake?" Still receiving no answer, he said "Lear?" even louder than before. Still, no answer.

Now, Yeer was a bit concerned. He had practically yelled his last call, and yet he had received no answer. Even if Lear was asleep, the yell surely would have woken him up. Why wasn't he responding?

Yeer worriedly thought that some monster might have come and devoured Lear, but left him behind? Yeer suddenly became frightened, and crawled along the bottom of the shelter on his stomach very quickly, trying to get past the rocks over onto Lear's side. He had to check if Lear was okay.

He crawled around the corner, and saw the leaf that Lear had taken for himself curled around itself in an almost cocoon-like shape. One side was a point, but the other side did not close; instead, two yellow ears and a long stem with a leaf on the end pointed out of the curled up leaf. Yeer sighed with relief, and crawled over to the leaf, and then shook it. A lot of mumbling came from the leaf's interior.

"Lear, get up. It's daytime, and we are going to get to the seed-pods today," Yeer said quickly.

"Lemme sleep!" An angry voice said from inside.

"Sorry, but we've got to keep moving. I think it might be mid day already, and we don't want to be separated from the seed-pods for any longer," Yeer stated. Annoyed mumbling followed the statement, and then the leaf uncurled, and Lear groggily began crawling towards the light. "I have been calling your name pretty loudly for a while now," Yeer explained. "You sleep pretty heavy. You gave me a scare, not answering and all."

Lear, who still did not seem very happy about being, muttered, "Just so you know, the next time _you _want to sleep in, I'm going to yell into your ear until to wake up." Lear paused, and then added, "And maybe for a while longer."

"Thank you for pointing that out," Yeer said, not really caring. "I personally think this should break us even, since you dragged me along the ground while I was asleep a day ago."

The two clambered out of the crevice, and continued their journey towards the seed-pod landing zone. They trudged over hills and past the massive roots of trees, getting closer and closer to their target.

After descending a hill from a tree trunk, and entering an area filed with tall grass, Yeer heard what sounded like a pikmin. He looked over at Lear, who was completely silent, and asked, "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah. Finally, other pikmin!" Lear said happily. The two yellows kept moving in the direction of the noise, which became louder and louder. Eventually, they were able to make out a conversation.

"It's blue."

"Of course it's blue, you idiot!"

"Are we supposed to take blue ones?"

"Why _wouldn't _we take blue ones?"

"I don't know, I mean, the yellow ones are the best, right?"

"Of course they are. But that doesn't mean we _don't _take the other colors."

Lear and Yeer poked their head around several large pieces of grass. They saw two yellows, a bud and a leaf, standing below a pellet posy with a blue pellet in the center of its flower. Apparently, the two pikmin were in an argument about the plant.

"Uh…" Lear mumbled, getting the arguing pair's attention.

"Look, these guys will agree with me," one of the pikmin, the one with a bud, said. "Hey, aren't we supposed to take all pellets back, even if they aren't yellow?"

"Just shut up for a second," Lear said pleasantly, walking into the clearing followed by Yeer. The pikmin he had told to shut up glared at him, while the other one just snickered. "You guys have to show us to the seed-pods."

"Uh, why, exactly?" The bud pikmin said angrily. "Its not our problem if you guys forgot the way back to the seed-pods."

"We're not from the seed-pods," Yeer said.

"Yeah, right!" The bud yellow said. "Just admit you forgot the way back!"

"Hey, listen, pal—" Lear began angrily, but Yeer grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him.

"If we told you we forgot the way, would you take us there?" He asked.

"No." The bud pikmin said.

"Then I guess this is going to be difficult," Yeer sighed. "If you just listen to me, this will go a lot faster."

"Let's just knock some sense into him and get going!" Lear hissed to Yeer.

"What was that? What did you say?" The bud said suspiciously.

"We are from the seed-pod that left several days ago," Yeer began, but the bud pikmin cut him off.

"Sorry, but I wasn't born until five days ago," The bud pikmin said. "So, I can't really trust you."

"How did you get to be a bud pikmin so fast if you're only five days old?" Lear asked incredulously.

"Hey, wait a second," The other pikmin that had been arguing, the one with a leaf, said as he walked over. "I remember when the other seed-pod left."

_Odd,_ Yeer thought. _A five day old with a bud and a pikmin that must be at least fifteen or sixteen who is still a leaf. _

"Alright then," Yeer said, focusing his attention on the older leaf pikmin. "We are from that seed pod."

"Then where's your seed pod?" The five day old bud asked.

"Stow it," Lear growled at the bud yellow, who curled his hands into fists.

"We need to speak with the Chieftains from the other seed-pods. Its very urgent we talk to them," Yeer continued to the other arguing pikmin.

The pikmin paused, thinking '_I don't want to take any chances,' _and then nodded and said, "Right this way."

He ran off in the direction of the seed-pods, and Yeer and Lear quickly followed. "Hey!" The bud called out in protest as they headed away.

"I'll see you later, punk," Lear yelled after the young bud.

---

Yeer, Lear, and their guide continued to run through the heavy grasses until they ended and a hill of dirt began. Their guide quickly ascended the hill, and Yeer and Lear caught their first close up of the seed-pods. They stopped running and looked at the three seed pods, which seemed to be organized as if in a square shape; each one was one of the square's corners, but one corner was missing. Behind the farthest seed-pod was a large, dead tree. It was only about four feet tall, and had clearly been a very young tree when it died. Many leafless branches jutted out of the short tree, and many yellow pikmin were sitting on the branches.

The guide looked back and saw that they had stopped. He motioned for them to come on and called, "Just this way!" Lear and Yeer broke out of their daze and followed him.

The trio ran into the midst of the seed-pods, and had to dodge around masses of pikmin nearby, who were carrying provisions, talking, lying on the ground and resting, or simply messing around. The guide made a beeline for a yellow that was standing with his back turned to them, looking away. This yellow had a flower on its head, as well, so Yeer and Lear quickly assumed he was important.

"Chieftain!" their guide said, running up behind the flower yellow. The 'Chieftain' slowly turned around, looking at the guide and Lear and Yeer.

"What is it?" He asked in a voice that reminded Yeer and Lear of Felow.

"Chieftain, these two pikmin told me that they are from the seed-pod that left camp some time ago," the guide explained, and the Chieftain stared at Yeer and Lear.

"You two are from Chieftain Lod's group?" He asked quickly.

"Er…" Lear began, looking to Yeer for help. Lear and Yeer had never known their Chieftain's name, because they had always referred to him as 'Chieftain'.

"We were never told his name, but we are from the seed-pod that left about fourteen days ago," Yeer said.

The Chieftain stared at them for a second, and then said, "Were you sent here as scouts?"

"No," Yeer said sadly. "We were not." He glanced at the guide, who was simply staring at the three other pikmin. Yeer added, "We have quite important things to tell you, however."

"Such as what?" The Chieftain asked pleasantly. Yeer glanced back at the guide; he was not exactly sure if this Chieftain wanted other yellows to hear. The guide noticed Yeer glancing at him somewhat meaningfully, and quickly realized that he was probably not supposed to hear this.

"Oh, sorry," He said, running off. Yeer didn't really know if the Chieftain would have cared if the guide had heard, but it was better to be safe and sorry.

Yeer quickly looked at the Chieftain, and whispered, "Our seed-pod has been destroyed."

There was an incredibly brief silence, followed by an explosion from the Chieftain. "What!?" He exclaimed rather loudly, gathering a lot of attention from nearby yellows. Eventually, they all turned away, and the Chieftain said, "How is this possible?"

"We traveled into this area where there was only dust and sand," Yeer began, but the Chieftain once again stopped him.

"Perhaps you should discuss this with the other Chieftains as well," He said.

**Toon in next update for questioning by the High Council!**


	14. The Yellow Council

**This is it, people. My last meal before the execution, a three week separation from technology…I should savor it. I hope that you enjoy this final update that I will be giving you until August.**

**Unless, of course, my plan succeeds…**

Yeer and Lear were standing on the ground with the seed-pods surrounding them. Also surrounding them, in almost a complete circle, were about two hundred and eighty yellow pikmin. They were all sitting down, and made a full circle around Yeer and Lear, leaving a distance of about one foot between the outermost pikmin in the circle and Yeer and Lear.

A couple of inches in front of Yeer and Lear was a trio of objects. One, a crumpled can, was on the left, a salt shaker was on the right, and a box of matches was in between. They were all only a couple of inches tall, and each one had a flower pikmin sitting atop it; Yeer recognized the Chieftain hey had spoken to sitting on the can to the left. The three flower yellows—who Yeer and Lear assumed to be the three Chieftains of each seed-pod—were staring down at the traveling duo, while they looked back up.

_Well, they certainly know this is important, _Yeer thought. He remembered the Chieftain running off to tell the other Chieftains, who had called all of their subjects (the subordinate pikmin from their seed-pods) to gather at a meeting that would deal with the important news Yeer and Lear had brought. _I guess it really wouldn't have mattered if that other guy had overheard when I told the Chieftain,_ Yeer thought.

"Quiet!" The Chieftain on the left (the one Yeer and Lear had met previously) boomed, causing all the pikmin surrounding Yeer and Lear to immediately stop their conversations. _They must be wondering what is so important that they had to stop working,_ Lear thought. "We have gathered to here of Chieftain Lod, his subjects, who, if you cannot recollect, left the sanctity of the Brush to explore new territory only a mere fourteen days ago." He turned to Yeer, and said, "Please explain everything that happened since the Chieftain's group left the Brush."

"Wait," The Chieftain on the far right spoke up, preventing Yeer from beginning his tale. "How, exactly, are to know that these two _leaf _yellows," He paused, and gave Lear a suspicious glance, "Are actually telling the truth?"

There were some murmurs of agreement from the Chieftain's statement through the gathered crowd, and Yeer was about to stand up for himself when he was cut off by the Chieftain on the left. "We must give them the benefit of the doubt," He said. "We would deeply regret it if they told us the truth, and we did not believe them." He then turned to Yeer and Lear, and said kindly, "Please begin."

Yeer coughed through his pores, and started his story. "We left the Brush to the west of here, and immediately ran into land where nothing seemed to grow. The entire landscape was dust, cracked dirt, and even sand."

"Yes, yes, the Barrens," The Chieftain on the right interrupted. "No one, save for Chieftain Lod, ever ventured very far into those lands." He then paused, and said, "Continue."

"We continued deep into these lands, and did not find nearly anything," Yeer said. "Many of us wanted to turn back," He added, remembering the conversation he had with Lear at the time when they had barely just entered the Barrens, "But we went forth with the Chieftain leading us." Yeer paused for a second, glancing somewhat nervously at the center Chieftain, who had stared at him almost coldly the entire time, and had yet to speak. He then resumed speaking. "As we headed deeper and deeper into the Brush, we seemed to find less and less. Eventually, we stopped traveling, and simply did a sweep of the nearby land in every direction, checking for any signs of life."

"Were any found?" The Chieftain on the left.

"We discovered that there were bugs living underground, and began searching for them," Yeer continued. "A search party, including my companion and me, were ambushed by bugs living underground." Yeer looked at the Chieftain on the left, who had immediately assumed this was the cause of the seed-pods' destruction. Yeer had yet to get to the worst part, however.

"What happened?" The Chieftain on the left asked curiously.

"We were badly delayed, and we did not have time to get back to our seed-pod before the sun set," Yeer said. "We looked for shelter in the night, and found a long tunnel leading underground. We entered it in search of shelter." Yeer realized how incredibly foolhardy their plan sounded in retrospect. _How odd that it would seem so sensible at the time! _

"If you had been attacked by monsters living underground, why did you seek shelter underground?" The Chieftain on the right questioned.

"We were afraid of the night, Chieftain," Yeer said humbly. "We sought refuge from the darkness of the night, and entered a large underground cave system." Yeer quickly glanced at the center Chieftain again, who was still silent. "While we were underground, we were attacked by monsters."

Slight murmurs went through the crowd again, but they were silence by the Chieftain on the right. "What did you expect!?" He asked incredulously. "The only dangerous things you had found were underground!"

"What were these 'monsters'?" The Chieftain on the left said curiously, not seeming to pay attention to the other Chieftain's exclamation.

"They were six legged bugs with massive jaws and tough hides, Chieftain." Lear spoke up. "Not that much bigger than us, but deadlier and tougher. They were born killing machines." More murmurs went through the crowd, and the Chieftain on the right seemed very skeptical about the description. "They ambushed us, and very few of us escaped alive. We ran in the direction of the seed-pod, though it still was night and the seed-pod was in the sky." He then paused, and said. "Though we did not know it, the monsters chased us and followed us towards the seed-pod, eager to finish us off." More murmurs arose as Lear continued again, "We warned the other pikmin, and we attempted to escape and head back here, for safety, but the monsters were far faster. They caught up to us, and…" He paused, and then finished, "Killed the Chieftain, and destroyed the seed-pod."

Gasps and shocked yells of horror were common in the masses on pikmin. Yeer and Lear looked at the three Chieftains; the one on the left, who already knew of the seed-pod's destruction, simply looked sad; the one on the right look horrorstruck, and the one in the middle was still glaring at Yeer with the exactly same expression, which was not friendly.

"After that," Yeer continued from where Lear had left off, "The survivors simply headed back here."

"Why did you flee?" The Chieftain on the right demanded. "Why didn't you stay and defend the seed-pod?"

"The monsters had us outnumbered at least two to one," Lear said. "Plus, one of them was at least as powerful as two of us."

"The Chieftain ordered most of us to evacuate," Yeer said. "He valiantly defended the seed-pod in a last stand with several other pikmin. It was suicide, but it bought the rest of us some time."

"Cowardice," The Chieftain on the right hissed quietly, but not so quietly that Yeer and Lear couldn't hear. Though he was their superior, Lear still flashed the Chieftain a glare.

"We ventured back the way we came, and eventually arrived back at the Brush," Yeer said. "Since many of us were tired from the journey, many yellows stayed behind at the foot of the Brush while the rest of us set out to arrive here."

"What happened?"

"The group that set out immediately, which included both of us," Lear picked up, "Was attacked by a sort of…explosive shooting monster."

The Chieftain on the right gave Lear a skeptical look, and the Chieftain in the center finally spoke. "What kind of creature was it?" He said in a heavy voice similar to the left Chieftain's voice, but heavier and a bit raspier.

Lear stuttered, and then continued, "It had two long legs, and a massive body with a nozzle that shot exploding blobs of light at us."

"A Gunfish," The Chieftain on the left said quietly.

"And how did you escape the Gatling Groink?" The center Chieftain asked.

"It killed our comrades, and left the wounded for dead," Lear explained. We survived, and climbed a tree to see if we could spot the seed-pods. However, we were attacked in the trees by a…" Lear nervously looked to Yeer, not knowing the name of the beast.

"Snitchbug," Yeer completed for him.

"You are good at improvising," The Chieftain on the right said coldly. "So what happened after this, then? Care to explain how two leaf pikmin managed to defeat a Snitchbug by themselves?"

"A monster came out of the ground and ate the Snitchbug," Yeer said, knowing how stupid and fake the story had begun to sound. "Then we had to find shelter from the night." Yeer ignored the Chieftain on the right, who had leaned over and was now whispering to the Chieftain in the center. "After day came, we made our way here."

"And that is all that happened?" The Chieftain on the left asked politely.

"Yes, Chieftain," Yeer finished.

There was a quick silence, followed by a yell from the Chieftain on the right. "Bah!" He yelled loudly, causing the congregation to give him full attention. "This story is nothing but an imaginative tale composed by two newborn slackers who became tired of working!" He yelled angrily, causing an uproar of murmurs and yells with mixed feelings from the crowd. "These two probably fled from their seed-pod for fear of work, and then returned here with nothing but lies!" He continued. "The words spoken by these two are absolutely false!" He shouted, causing the observing pikmin to go wild with both protest and agreement.

The Chieftain on the left immediately spoke up, and yelled for silence several times. It still took a couple of minutes to calm the yellows down; Yeer looked at them sadly, knowing that the majority supported the right-side Chieftain's view.

"We swear that this happened! Every word of it is true!" Lear yelled out.

"Liar!" The right-side Chieftain yelled back.

"Calm yourself, Yedel," The center Chieftain said, staring at the Chieftain on the right. The Chieftain on the right looked back, and nodded slightly while quickly becoming less enraged. The Chieftain then turned to Yeer and Lear, and said, "Perhaps it was in the way it was described, but this story hardly seems plausible." He paused, and asked, "Do you have any proof?"

"No, Chieftain," Yeer said humbly. "There may be some members of our old group still alive in the forest, however. They could surely testify that this story is true."

"You stated that the monsters of the Barrens outnumbered you," The center Chieftasin continued. "How many pikmin do you think it would take to defeat them?"

"I do not think that all of the pikmin assembled here could beat them," Lear said, but when the center Chieftain flashed him a look of sharp annoyance, he quickly added, "Chieftain."

"This news, provided it is true," The center Chieftain continued, "Is…disturbing." He paused, looking at the two other Chieftains, and then continued, "I daresay that my two fellow Chieftains here will agree with me that, if this information is true, this is a threat that should be stopped. It would be a priority to extract vengeance from whoever would bring harm to a seed-pod.

"We do not have any records on what these beasts might be, so information will be lacking." He looked at the Chieftain on the right, and then brought his hands up in front of them, pressing his fingers on each hand together to make a spine shape with his arced digits. "A Chieftain will deal with this menace personally." The center Chieftain looked to the right Chieftain, and added, "I think that Chieftain Yedel would find this a perfect opportunity to put his skills to use."

The right-side Chieftain looked speechless, simply staring, wide eyed, at the center Chieftain, who looked at him calmly. The right-side Chieftain stammered, and mumbled something, but then the center Chieftain looked back to Yeer and Lear. "You two will accompany him to deal with this menace. It will take you outside the Brush's borders, and you will travel with a single seed-pod," He continued, causing slight murmurs from the crowd. "However…" He said slowly, and the entire congregation focused on him completely. "…Should you fail, or should you be lying about this story, do not dare to return to the Brush, for you shall be forcibly removed." As he finished, his tone became colder, and slightly more sinister. Do not attempt to receive forgiveness if you fail." The center Chieftain then said in a calmer tone, "This Council meeting is over."

Slowly but surely, the pikmin who were assembled began to depart. Yeer and Lear exchanged glances, both realizing the responsibility of their assigned mission. They were going to war, and failure was not an option.

The Chieftains dismounted from their positions, and went different ways. The Chieftain on the left, however, strode up to the pair of yellows. "Come with me," he said.

**And, just as things begin to heat up, I will be unable to update. How unfortunate. **

**And with that, it seems that I must big you goodbye.**

**Good day.**


	15. Covert Meeting

**Guess what? I'm back! And I sure did have to do a lot of reading to get up to speed on the last three weeks here at Fan Fiction dot net!**

**So, where did I leave off…Ah, yes, the council meeting…Well, I'm sorry to say that this chapter lacks action of any kind, but there are some very, very important plot points. **

**Oh, and by the way, its also a very short chapter. Don't worry, though, more are coming up soon!**

"Where exactly are we going, Chieftain?" Lear asked as he, Yeer, and the friendly Chieftain trudged up (though they actually trudged down; they were heading down the side of a slowly ascending rise in the camp that housed the three yellow onions) to a yellow seed-pod. Many yellows were already standing around under the seed-pod, in the shade it made. They glanced up, saw the Chieftain, and bowed.

"We are already here," The Chieftain replied, walking below the seed-pod and turning to several pikmin to his right. "Leave us, please," He said pleasantly. The three pikmin nodded and scampered off, as did every other pikmin in earshot. Suddenly Yeer, Lear, and the Chieftain were the only pikmin around. "Please, sit," The Chieftain ordered as he, too, sat down. Yeer and Lear also quickly sat, sitting on the other side of the slowing yellow light that originated from the very bottom of the seed-pod. "We must discuss this mission that you are about to go on," He began, looking at the pair of yellows, who were feeling a bit nervous. "Tell me," The Chieftain asked. "Do you think that, in all honesty, a seed-pod's number of yellows could defeat this 'bug army' that you have described?"

Lear and Yeer looked at each other, and then back at the Chieftain. "No, Chieftain," They both quickly said.

The Chieftain nodded quickly. "How many do think it would take, then?"

"Oh, at least three," Lear spoke up quickly. Yeer looked at him, and then nodded to the Chieftain in agreement.

"Well, there is certainly no way you will find that many willing warriors here," The Chieftain said.

"Especially since almost all these guys don't believe us," Lear muttered angrily.

"I'm sure that many of them believe you," The Chieftain said. "In fact, I am quite confident that even Yedel believes you."

"Chieftain Yedel? The one who kept yelling 'this is a big lie'?" Yeer asked disbelievingly.

"Who's also the one we were assigned with," Lear mumbled.

"Yes, he believes you, all right," The Chieftain said. "He just does not want to show it. He also doesn't _want_ anyone to believe you." The Chieftain sighed, and then said. "He's hungry for power."

"Huh, Chieftain?" Lear asked stupidly.

"You might have noticed that the central Chieftain, Lead, seems to be calling the shots," The Chieftain stated.

"Yes, Chieftain," Yeer said. "He seemed to be in a position of superior power, especially over the Chieftain on the right….Yedel," Yeer said.

"Yes, Lead is even more lustful for power." The Chieftain said. "I might as well fill you two in.

"You see, assuming you two are younger than about twenty, you will not understand what I am talking about. Before you two were even born, I began noticing that Chieftain Lead was getting his pikmin to grow faster. He would let them reach bud stage before even plucking them out of the ground. Some of the leaf pikmin who were his subjects were even given a small supply of nectar to turn them into buds—and we have a low enough supply of nectar anyway."

"That explains why we met a five-day old pikmin with a bud!" Lear said as realization hit him.

"Yes, he was probably a subject of Lead." The Chieftain replied, paused, and then continued. "I was wondering why Lead was giving his pikmin advantages from birth, and I quickly noticed that his pikmin seemed to be doing a lot of the work, too. Naturally, this meant that they were taking a lot of the harvested materials back to their own home seed-pod. I quickly noticed that the population under Lead's supervision was rising at a much quicker speed than mine, Lod's, or Yedel's.

"Soon, his pikmin were so common it seemed like they were more than a third of a population that was supposed to be split into quarters. Lod noticed this, too, as well as how he noticed the decrease of food around the camp—Lead's pikmin were taking far more than they should have. Then I noticed that Yedel's pikmin seemed to be maturing faster as well—it wasn't long after that when Yedel and Lead seemed to be having a lot of private meetings. I don't know exactly why they wanted more power—I suppose they just want the best for their pikmin—but it was clearly evident that they were getting it, and that Yedel became Lead's subordinate so that he could share the wealth. Maybe he was trying to keep his pikmin from becoming weaker than Lead's overall when the alliance first started, but he eventually seemed to recognize that he was under Lead's control.

"Lod noticed this, too, and I was worried that he would join this alliance. Lead and Yedel were becoming responsible for destroying almost all of the forest near the camp, and hogging all the gained resources. I realized if Lod agreed to get his pikmin to over harvest, we would start depleting resources at a dangerous rate. Even worse, Yedel and Lead were harvesting the creatures on the lower levels of the food chain, meaning that bigger creatures would soon resort to coming after us due to the lack of other food.

"Anyway, Lod announced that he and his pikmin would be leaving."

"Oh, yes, I remember that, Chieftain," Yeer said.

"I assumed that this was because resources were getting depleted, but then I was worried that I might have overlooked some sort of alliance between Lod and Lead." I was worried that Lod might have had some other motive, and might have been bossed into leaving by Lead—who had used a bit of his bossiness to become superior to Yedel. Therefore, I sent a spy with Chieftain Lod to see if anything was amiss. I heard you two mention that some yellows who had been accompanying you were still alive, and I was wondering if the yellow I sent with Lod's group might still be alive."

"We didn't recognize anyone who seemed out of place, but if we knew him and never knew, all we would need was his name." Yeer said.

"His name is Felow," The Chieftain said.

**So, there's the chapter. I'll try and cram in as many updates as I can before I leave…**_**again**_**…on August 9****th****. That'll be a two week trip, so you know the drill.**

…**Okay, now you have two choices. Review, or leave. …Oh, wait, there's actually submit review, add story to C2, Report Possible—wait, what!?**


	16. Interrupted Discussion

**This chapter picks up from the exact point that the other one leaves off. The discussion is still going on, and it ends this chapter.**

**Oh, and I realize that the number's of name's may get confusing, so just to recap, we've got Yeer, Lear, Chieftain Lod (deceased), Felow (deceased), Chieftain Yedel (the one assigned to work with Yeer & Lear), Chieftain Lead (the one who is supposedly the 'lead' Chieftain, or wants to be), and the hospitable Chieftain. One more character who will become important enters in this chapter.**

"What!?" Lear burst out. "Felow!?"

"No wonder he was a spy," Yeer said. "He certainly did fit in perfectly."

"Yes, he was a very natural scout," The Chieftain said. "Do you know if he survived?"

Yeer and Lear looked at each other, wondering who should say it. Lear eventually spoke up, and said, "I'm afraid he was killed by the fish that shot explosives."

"I'm sorry to hear that," The Chieftain said sadly.

_I can't believe we were being watched that whole time_, Yeer thought. He remembered when he had first met Felow, and when he had seen Felow leading the charge against the gunfish. _I suppose he and this Chieftain had the best intentions for spying on our Chieftain, though…Felow was truly an honorable pikmin. _

"Lod was always the adventurous one," The Chieftain spoke up again. "I should have expected he just wanted to explore the land. He always grew tired of the necessity to guard the land we already had, and wanted to leave and conquer new frontiers…" The Chieftain paused, realizing he was rambling. "Now it seems that, with Lod gone, Lead wants to expand his own forces' numbers even more by getting rid of Yedel. Lead apparently was willing to break the alliance for this reason; either the descision he made was not one that Yedel agreed with, or they are both very good actors." He stopped again, and then said, "But, you must listen. I do not trust Yedel. I need someone to keep an eye on him for me—to report on anything suspicious. I think that Lead might have other motives for sending him away." He stared at both of the leaf yellows in turn. "Can I trust you two to do that?" He asked.

Yeer and Lear glanced at each other, and then looked back at the Chieftain. _Well, he certainly has been hospitable. I suppose we should have more faith in him than in the other two Chiefs. _Yeer thought. He nodded, and Lear quickly agreed as well.

"I'm happy to hear that," The Chieftain said contentedly. "Anyway, we must discuss your mission.

"You are being sent off to defeat an adversary with a force not even half the size of your enemy's. You also are being sent with a Chieftain who probably will not fully cooperate. With an unreliable command and such a low level of forces, battle would be foolhardy." He stopped again, and said, "It is quite obvious that you will need help."

With that, the Chieftain stood up, and walked into the beam of light coming from the seed pod. It surrounded him, and he looked up towards the origin of the light. With his head craned upwards, he quickly said, "Flewow," and then stopped.

There was a slight pause, and then a single leaf pikmin leapt out of the seed-pod. He came out directly behind The Chieftain, exiting through a hole that one of the pod's legs was stuck into leaving only a bit of space. The yellow slid down the leg, but slipped fairly close to the bottom, falling about and inch and landing with a small 'thud' and an "oof".

Lear concealed his laughter at the yellow's mistake as he picked himself off the ground. As the newcomer coughed through his pores to flush out any clogging dirt, Lear and Yeer also rose. The newcomer walked towards the other three, and said in a clear voice, "What can I do for you, Chieftain?"

The Chieftain turned to Yeer and Lear and said, "Yeer, Lear, this is Flewow."

"Hello there," Flewow said pleasantly.

"He will be helping you on your adventure," The Chieftain continued.

"I will?" Flewow asked.

"Wait a second," Lear spoke up. "If he was in the seed-pod this whole time, how does he know that we were given a mission?"

"Oh, I can explain," Flewow said through nervous laughter. "It is my responsibility to remember everything that occurs at public council meetings."

"Yes, he is the recorder for this seed-pod," The Chieftain added.

_So, he went right to the council, and then right back here? _Lear thought curiously. _Why?_

"Recorder?" Yeer asked. "Chieftain, what exactly is a recorder?"

"Well, you see, Flewow here hasn't done a day's work in his entire twenty six day life," The Chieftain continued, and Flewow looked at him with a slightly shocked expression.

"Neither has Lear, but he's not a 'recorder'," Yeer said.

"Hey!" Lear said angrily.

"You see, Flewow is the second most knowledgeable of any pikmin under my command," The Chieftain continued as Flewow beamed with pride. "He has been taught every piece of knowledge that has ever been known by the yellow pikmin. He is what you would call a scholar. At least, the apprentice of a scholar."

_Uh oh, _Lear thought. _An egghead. _

"He has been taught every single piece of knowledge known by the scholar before him. Descriptions of monsters, types of plants, geography, biology, the ways of the other pikmin colors…Everything," The Chieftain said. "You'll need him on this mission."

"Why?" Lear said stupidly. Flewow looked at him with a glance that reminded Lear of what one would look like when trying to understand the behavior of an animal. Whatever the expression was meant to show, it annoyed Lear.

"As I said before, you are going to need help on this mission, and one thing you'll need is a plan," The Chieftain said. "I'm sure that Flewow will be irreplaceable at this task. Also, one of the first things you'll need to know is what these bug creatures actually are."

"I'm afraid that knowledge exceeds that known by the yellows, Chieftain," Flewow spoke up.

"Oh, I realize that, Flewow," The Chieftain said. "You will need to discover that by asking a pikmin color with more recorded information." The Chieftain turned back to Yeer and Lear, and said, "You will need to rally assistance that cannot be found within the mere contents of the Brush. Your expedition will not start in the direction of the Barrens."

It was at this point that the Chieftain saw something behind Yeer and Lear, and directed his attention towards it. Yeer turned around and saw two bud yellows standing higher up on the ascending ground. They stared down towards the group assembled below, and then began trudging down towards them.

"Lead's bodyguards, watch yourself," The Chieftain hissed to Yeer and Lear. Then, he called out to the two new arrivals. "What do you want?" The Chieftain quickly asked the two bud pikmin. He shoved right by Yeer and Lear, and stood in front of them as the two bud pikmin walked up to him.

"We have been sent to report important information to the two subjects of Lod," One of the bud yellows said. He spoke in a deep, gruff voice that was completely different from that of Flewow or Felow. Yeer also noticed a rise in tension among the two buds and the Chieftain. "…And also to you, Chieftain."

"Please note that, as a mark of respect, you must refer to Chieftains in their complete title unless you yourself are Chieftains." He glared at the bud who spoke, and added, "So it is necessary to say, 'Chieftain Lod,', not simply his name."

"The deceased no longer carry their titles, Chieftain," The second bud said gruffly.

"What is this information you were sent to relay?" The Chieftain barked.

The buds paused, and then one said, "We have been sent by our Chieftain to inform you that Yedel is no longer in possession of his former status."

"You must say, 'Chieftain', before the name of a Chie—" The Chieftain said, but never finished.

"Yedel is no longer a Chieftain," The bud said shortly. The Chieftain stared at him.

"What!? How can this be!?" The Chieftain asked incredulously.

"That information is not to be told to anyone except a Chieftain, with no others in earshot," The second bud spoke up. "We were told to inform the two subjects of…Chieftain…Lod that they will not be accompanied by a Chieftain. However, a representative from each seed-pod will be sent." He paused, and then said, "Also, our Chieftain wishes to meet with you, Chieftain," He said.

"I will be along shortly," The Chieftain replied.

"Oh, no, you don't understand, Chieftain," The first bud said. "We've been sent to escort you."

"I need no escort."

"Our Chieftain insists."

"I will be along shortly," The Chieftain said through clenched pores. "If you really need to escort me so badly, you can wait." With that, he turned his back on the two buds, and walked back to Yeer, Lear, and Flewow. The two bud pikmin stared at him, and then whispered to each other quietly as the Chieftain began speaking to the others.

"Listen, you are now free of any difficulties Yedel might have shown you, but this 'representative' may pose a threat." He paused with an almost sad expression, and said, "When I return from this meeting, _I _may no longer be a Chieftain. So, listen to me now.

"Travel to the domains of the other types of pikmin. Learn what these barren-monsters are. You must leave first thing tomorrow to begin your journey. Staying around for longer would not be appreciated." He stopped again, and finished, "The monsters have defeated us once, but we will be the ones to finish the fight. Finish it, for Chieftain Lod."

With that, the Chieftain walked up to the two bud yellows, who moved on either side of him and then followed him as he walked off.

---

**As you can see, there is a considerable sense of tension. At least, I hope—that's what I was aiming for. One more chapter before the end of the story's first segment, **_**Encounter**_**. After that, it turns to…we'll, I guess I'll say when it happens…**

**The chapter after this, I fear, will be even shorter than this one. Oy…what have I come to these days?**


	17. A Contest and a Quick Reunion

**Hello…again. **

**Good news! I don't have to go anywhere anymore. So, other than school, its smooth sailing from here on in. Oh, wait…school…**

**So, this is the final chapter of **_**Encounter**_**. Enjoy!**

---

For the second time that day, most of the yellow pikmin in the camp had gathered and sat in a large circle. However, there were quite a few differences from the circle that had surrounded the council; this circle was much smaller, and was also made up of less pikmin—only about one hundred were gathered.

The three elevated seats that the Chieftains had used were gone. Instead, the middle of the circle was empty, save for two pikmin. The two were standing and staring at each other from different sides of the circle, while the gathered pikmin watched in anticipation.

One of the pikmin had a leaf on its head, and looked less muscled than the other. Oddly enough, however, the leaf pikmin was a good deal taller than the other. This leaf pikmin was easily recognized by the congregation as one of the pikmin who had been questioned earlier; though they did not know his name, almost all of them recognized Lear.

On the other side of the circle was a moderately short bud yellow. He looked somewhat younger than Lear, though he already had a bud. The top of his stem was about half a pikmin's head shorter than the top of Lear's stem, but they glared at each other with equal ferocity. This particular bud yellow was the five-day old that Yeer and Lear had encountered when they first arrived in the pikmin camp.

As the young bud and Lear stared at each other, Flewow and Yeer watched from the audience, fairly close to the front. "So, what's the plan?" Yeer whispered to Flewow.

"Eh, sorry?" Flewow said, breaking his attention from the face off between the two in the ring. "Oh, yes, the plan!" He said in realization, and rather loud realization, too—most of the nearby pikmin stared at him. "It will take me some time to go over the necessary procedures for devising some sort of strategy that we could use."

_Uh, what did he just say? _"Okay, sounds good." _I think that means that he's going to think about it for a little longer, or something. _

"Do you think your associate has any chance at success against his opponent?" Flewow asked curiously.

_He sure is well-spoken, _Yeer thought. "Oh, sure!" He said. "He's fighting against a five-day old half a head shorter than him. I think the odds are on his side."

"On the contrary, I believe that victory for him would be quite improbable," Flewow said pleasantly, much to Yeer's confusion and slight annoyance. "He is facing a bud pikmin who is far superior physically, if not mentally at this stage." Flewow continued.

"Well, we'll see," Yeer said, having good faith in his friend. The discussion stopped there when the young bud and Lear both yelled battle cries and charged at each other.

They both ran straight towards the other, and (though Lear did have longer legs) the bud got to the middle first with his greater level of energy, supplied by having a bud. Lear reached out towards him while still charging forwards, attempting to grab him, but the bud's faster reflexes allowed him to react faster. He swiftly swung his stem in an arc over his head, and the bud clubbed Lear in the stomach. With a grunt, Lear fell over backwards, right and the bud's feet.

The bud yellow gave him no time to react. He quickly sidestepped so that he was standing on Lear's left, and then clubbed him again in the stomach when he was already down. The attacked winded Lear, who groaned loudly as soon as he regained his breath. A loud 'ooh' issued from the crowd, drowning out his groan.

"That must've hurt," Yeer said, wincing slightly after watching his friend get hit when he was already down. The rest of the crowd was pretty much mumbling the same thing as Yeer—or cheering.

"Indeed," Flewow agreed with Yeer, and both remained fixed on the fight.

Still flat on the ground, Lear swung his head to the left, and his long stem went flying into the bud's legs, taking them out from under him. The bud yelled, "Whoa!" as he slipped and fell on his back. Lear slowly got to his feet, panting for breath, and backed away from the bud, allowing him to get up. The bud quickly looked up to see his adversary waiting for him, and leapt to his feet. There was a brief pause before the two went at it again.

Lear threw a punch with his left hand, which the bud easily caught in his left. The two glared at each other before Lear came in with an uppercut that forced the bud to back up a few steps. Lear was about to charge again, but the bud expected it; he swung his stem by shaking his head from side to side when it was bowed, and Lear had to jump back to avoid the swinging sprout on the end of the stem. Lear did not have time, however, to dodge the next attack; the bud leapt at him and kicked him in the shoulder blade, knocking him over while the bud landed behind him.

Lear got up in time to block a punch thrown by the bud. Lear then twisted the bud's arm back, into a painful position, while the bud murmured in pain. Lear then flipped the bud over, causing him to fall on his stomach. Lear was about to step on him when the bud yellow rolled away in the other direction Lear leapt at him, raising his stem and bringing it down…

Only to be caught in the hands, of the bud, two roughly threw Lear aside by the stem (which, obviously, was very painful).

Lear got up at about the same time the bud yellow did, and was ready when the bud shoulder barged right into him. Lear pushed against the bud's shoulder, but he did not expect the ferocity of the attack. After about a second of pushing back and forth, Lear's resistance faltered; it was all the bud yellow needed.

The bud charged into Lear, shoulder first, which hit Lear in the chest. The bud then raised his shoulder, and the momentum raised Lear off the ground, and sent him flying into the air, pushed backwards by the momentum.

He flew backwards for about an inch and a half, and landed on his back…outside the circle.

There was a slight pause, and then a round of claps and cheers came for the victor. He bowed gratefully to the audience as Lear groaned and sat up on the ground nearby. He looked to his left, and saw Flewow looking right back at him.

"Good try, Lear," Yeer said from the other side of Flewow. "You sure did give him a good fight."

"Actually," Flewow spoke up, "It would seem that he actually has quite a bit of strength left." The three looked up to see several other bud yellows run out and begin congratulating him as he vigorously nodded and spoke to them. It was clear that he was very energetic.

"You would have done worse," Lear grumbled. Flewow looked at him, not appearing to be very offended at all.

"You would have done far better if you had calculated his battle strategy," Flewow pointed out. "The look in your eyes during attacks using his bud as an efficient weapon insinuated that you were not prepared, and were therefore surprised, by his skill with his stem."

Lear looked at him blankly, and the silence between the three was broken when Yeer pointed to a certain yellow among the group that was dispersing. This figure, however, was casually walking towards them, his flower bobbing from side to side. "Look, the Chieftain is back!" He yelled excitedly as he ran over to the Chieftain, quickly followed by Flewow and Lear.

"Hello, soon-to-be-adventurers," He said pleasantly. "How did the match against one of Lead's…" He then gazed at Lear, who was wincing and holding his stomach with one hand. "Oh. Better luck next time, my friend."

"Thanks, Chieftain," Lear said as he winced in pain from the main wound of the fight.

"Chieftain, if you do not mind me asking, do you still retain your former position?" Flewow asked worriedly.

"Oh, yes, Flewow, I am still a Chieftain." He said. "Lead simply asked me questions. You know, 'what were you discussing with the two new arrivals', and the like. I did manage to get some good information out of the encounter, though." He turned and motioned to his own seed-pod. "Come, let us walk back to the seed-pod. The day will soon end."

The four yellows trudged back, holding a brief conversation amongst themselves. "It would be important to note that Yedel will not be coming with you; he will remain here, separated from his seed-pod. Apparently, he was stripped of his former title for 'instigating procrastination', or something along those lines. His subjects, who will be traveling with you, are confused and in some cases angry. They will not present as much of a hindrance without their leader. The main thing you'll want to watch out for now is Lead's representative."

"Chieftain, do you think Yedel actually performed a crime?"

"Certainly not. I am quite confident that Lead just wants him out of the way. After all, it puts him in a higher position of power." Flewow nodded, as if he was assessing the information. "I am sure that Yedel feels betrayed." He looked out in front of his path, not staring at anything in particular. "I remember when we all used to work together as leaflets…he was the oldest, and would always try and boss us around. He always did seem to have a soft spot for Lead. I suppose that he won't be so friendly with Lead anymore, eh?"

It was at this point that the four pikmin reached the seed-pod. With a sigh, the Chieftain turned to them again. "This, my friends, is where our paths separate. You know what you must do, and I can no longer guide you." He glanced at each of them in turn, and finally spoke up again. "Our seed-pod will be willing to accept visitors of the same breed, and so will the seed-pod that had a strong bond with Yedel." Yeer and Lear knew quite well what he meant; they would rest in a seed-pod for the first time in many days. "All I can say now is good luck, and may you prosper on this quest." He stopped again, and then said, "RALLY!" In a booming voice as he called over the heads of Yeer, Lear, and Flewow. He then looked back at them, and said, "You three should simply head on inside.

Flewow immediately said, "Yes, Chieftain," and headed for one of the poles on the side of the seed-pod. He clambered halfway up it with considerable difficulty, before wobbling and almost falling off. As he continued his climb, he yelled down towards Yeer and Lear, who were simply staring at the seed-pod. "Come along!" He yelled to them.

As the Chieftain's subjects began to gather in front of him, Yeer and Lear simply stared at the seed-pod. Then, they glanced at each other, wondering if both were thinking the same thing. After about a minute, they began to slowly climb up one of the stalks.

Did they have any doubts about entering? Any private worries about betraying their former seed-pod and Chieftain? Perhaps they did, perhaps they did not, but they did not let it show as they entered the seed-pod, which was preparing for take-off as the Chieftain counted his subjects below, and they began to climb aboard.

**Yes, short, I know, but I have plans for lengthy chapters in the future. **

**Comments? Questions? Death threats? Write 'em up in a review! And be quick about it, too; I think the snowball might be melting. Curse the summer heat!**


	18. Newfound Enemy, Fallen Hero

**Similarly to the beginning of **_**Encounter**__**Gathering **_**has a pretty short opening chapter. Still, there are some important plot points in this chapter, such as the plan of action, or at least the beginning of it. FINALLY!**

The beginning of the next day went by in a blur for Yeer and Lear. As soon as they woke up, they were filed out of the seed-pod and ushered towards Yedel's former pod. The Chieftain said nothing else to them other than "hurry up"—no words of advice or suggestions for their missions. However, as they headed for the seed-pod and Yeer turned back, he noticed that the Chieftain was watching them with a nervous gaze. Much to Yeer's surprise, the Chieftain also seemed sad for a reason he could not place.

When they arrived at Yedel's pod, they saw about seventy pikmin filing out of the pod, while one bud yellow overlooked the proceedings. As Flewow, Yeer, and Lear approached, the bud yellow whirled around and stared at them. The glance also did not insinuate anything friendly.

"I daresay that is Chieftain Lead's representative," Flewow said quietly, so that only Yeer and Lear could hear him speak.

"I don't know," Lear said thoughtfully, albeit with a twinge of bitterness. "There's more than just Lead's right hand men that are willing to give us death glares."

The bud yellow walked up to them, seeming to walk more like a military officer than a worker. "You are Chieftain Wuyow's representative, are you not?" He asked imperiously, speaking directly to Flewow.

"Indeed I am," Flewow replied. He spoke in a similar tone, though it was not as sharp, and sounded far more friendly. "I take it that you were sent by Chieftain Lead, yes?" _Good thing he didn't mention that he was going to come with us even if he wasn't the representative, _Lear thought. _Is this guy another recorder person, like Fle-whoever? _Lear doubted it; this bud yellow seemed knowledgeable, but in a slightly more diplomatic sense than Flewow's textbook knowledge. Lear was also having the problem of remembering—and pronouncing—Flewow's name. "I am confident that you are also familiar with the two survivor's of Lod's…" Flewow trailed off as he noticed that Lead's representative was not paying any attention to what he was saying. He had walked past Flewow and stood in front of Yeer and Lear, and was staring at them coldly.

"Tell me, _supposed _subjects of Lod," He said with such an air of superiority that Lear clenched his hands into fists. "How much do you two know about leading a force of pikmin?"

"I think we'll be capable," Yeer said quickly, cutting Lear of from yelling an insult. Unlike his short-tempered friend, Yeer realized that making an enemy before they even began their journey was very unwise.

"I must warn you that there is more responsibility in leading pikmin than in gathering," The representative said in the same tone. He then turned his attention away from Yeer, and to Lear, who was boiling with fury.

"And we will warn _you,_" Lear hissed, using the same tone as the representative (which was similar to the tone was would use when in conversation with dirt), "That manual labor requires more physical power than _representing_."

_I never thought I'd hear Lear hold manual labor in such high esteem, since he always tries to avoid it, _Yeer thought. _And of all the times to be quiet, he just has to open his pores…_

"Oh, dear," Flewow said to himself. If any of the other three pikmin heard him, they didn't pay any attention.

"Mind your tongue, _worker_," The representative said angrily before regaining his composure and looking back at Yeer. "If you find yourself in need of assistance in managing your position of power, I am sure that I can help you." With that, and one more contemptuous glance at Lear, he strolled off towards the seed-pod.

There was a brief silence between Yeer, Lear, and Flewow before Flewow broke it by saying, "My, my, this is not exactly how I expected the beginning of our journey to commence."

"He should do us a favor and do try and befriend a Creeping Chrysanthemum," Lear said angrily.

"Uh…so…" Yeer said, trying to move on. "Fwelow, have you planned out the first part of our trip?"

"It's 'Flewow', actually," Flewow said in an annoyed tone. Apparently, Yeer also had trouble remembering his name. "And, yes, I daresay that the plan for our quest's beginning is very well thought out."

"So, what is it, exactly?" Lear asked.

"Well, since gaining information on these arthropod creatures is highly important to the success of our mission, I have decided that visiting the blue pikmin is a must."

"Huh?" Lear asked stupidly. "Why the blues?"

"The blue pikmin have the largest archives of knowledge possessed by any pikmin color we have made contact with," Flewow explained. "If anyone would know what these creatures are, it would be them—"

"So, pretty much, we go visit the blues?" Lear asked. "That isn't a very complicated plan."

"I'm not finished explaining yet!" Flewow said. "Anyway, since it has been determined that we yellows do not have the strength alone to defeat these monsters, it will be important to gather help in our cause. Therefore, we will be making far more than one stop. On our way to the blues, who take up residence to the northeast of the Brush, we are going to head far north and begin negotiations with the green pikmin.

"Greens?" Yeer asked. "

"Indeed. They are our closest neighbors, and while or diplomatic relations with them have been somewhat shaky as of late, I suspect that they will be eager to join any sort of military effort," Flewow continued. "After making contact with the greens, who lie just to the north of here, we will continue eastward to the territory that belongs to the blues. From there, we will evaluate our numbers and progress in comparison with time spent over the journey, and then decide on our next course of action."

There was another pause while Yeer and Lear took in the information, and then Yeer complimented the plan by saying, "Sounds good."

"Yeah, it does," Lear agreed, though his mind was going through stories of the greens that he had heard in his time. "So, I get we should get a move on, huh?"

"I suppose," Yeer said again, and the nervousness in both his and Lear's voices were clear; they had never been in charge before. "We might as well give it a shot…" He turned, and walked over to the many pikmin who were lounging about. "Okay, people, we're moving out!" He yelled, and all the pikmin looked up to see that they were being commanded by a pair of leaf pikmin.

Silence. Lear glanced over at Lead's representative, who was smirking at them.

After what seemed like an eternity, the pikmin began to get up and prepare to move out. "Uh, thirty people grab the seed pod!" Lear yelled, and ran over to it. "Fold the legs halfway and carry it, you know the drill! We carriers will switch off and get a break later! C'mon, let's go, people!"

Thirty or so yellows walked over to the seed-pod and folded its three legs inward and then lifted the pod into the air as Lear watched. "Alright everyone, follow him!" Lear yelled, pointing to Yeer.

Yeer quickly hissed to Flewow, "Um, what direction are we going in?"

"Right behind you," Flewow whispered back. "Here, I'll walk alongside you so you know where to go." With that, the two strolled off, followed by the yellows and the lifted seed-pod.

Lear turned around as he followed the seed-pod, and saw the representative watching the proceedings with a look of confusion and amazement.

Remembering the smirk that the representative had flashed, Lear smirked back at him before following the seed-pod.

---

It was as they were traveling northward, but still in the Brush, that a good segment of the group stopped. Yeer had no idea what had happened. Many of the yellows simply walked off, all walking to the right through a set of bushes. Lear watched, also in slight confusion, as the seed-pod's carriers softly placed the pod on the ground and followed the others who had walked off.

Lear and Yeer exchanged nervous glances, not knowing what was happening. Was it a mutiny? No, mutinies were not silent. And why was Flewow following them?

Noticing Flewow among the leaving, Yeer and Lear ran after him.The almost bumped into him on the other side of a large shrub, and saw all of the pikmin gathered around a large rock. All of the yellows were solelmly staring at what was on top of the rock, and it quickly caught Yeer's eye, as well as Lear's.

The thing atop the rock was made of wood; that was clearly obvious. It was a darker shade of brown than the surrounding trees, but it had clearly been carved from a tree. At the very bottom of the object, it was merely a circle with a diameter about the length of a yellow (minus the stem) the circle was the bottom of a very small, thick cylinder, which stayed the same size throughout its height. However, just on top of the cylinder was a deep mark in the wood, and above the mark the wood began to move inward, forming a cone. Or, at least, it would have formed a cone if it had not been cut off by another groove in the wood, which was followed by a much quicker shrinking of the cylinder's width. Before its diameter became shorter than that of a penny, it raised straight upwards like a long cylinder and stopped losing width. The cylinder was topped with a long, thick ring of wood that protruded outwards, and then began to shrink as it went upwards. On top of the ring was what looked like a collar, which was the base for what could only be described as wood in the shape of an olive. Towards the top of the oval there was a slit in the wood that looked like a frowing, solemn mouth. On top of the oval was a small circle.

The wood ornament was clearly well carved, and the pikmin stared up at in awe; it was like nothing ever made by a pikmin. Yeer walked up to Flewow, and asked in a whisper, "What is it?" As he asked, Lear also curiously listened to hear the answer.

"You mean, you do not know?" Flewow asked, surprised.

"I spent almost all of my time in the Brush towards the southern tip of the forest," He said. "I have never seen this…object." The object was about the height of two yellows, and when it was already elevated on a rock, it towered over them.

"This is the grave of the first ever Chieftain," Flewow said, referring to the Chieftain who had united all of the yellows together. "The founder of the unity shared between all yellow pikmin."

Yeer had heard the tale; the nameless Chieftain who had united all of the yellows was surrounded in lore, and his tale was passed down to every yellow, and was to be passed down for all of time.

"He disappeared in a great flood, and his body was never recovered," Yeer said, thinking back to the tale. "I knew that he had a monument to honor him, but I did not know it was this."

"Whenever yellows pass this tombstone on their way out of the Brush, they pay their respects and ask for the spirit of the first Chieftain to watch over them." Flewow continued. "When they return, they thank him for his blessing."

The group sat in silence, gazing at the statue, for a long time. However, the crowd eventually began to walk back towards where the seed-pod had been left, and the journey quickly continued.

_I suppose all yellows do have something in common_, Yeer thought as he saw Lead's representative walking, silently and solemnly, away from the large monument.

Yeer looked at it one final time, staring up at the solemn frown-shape mark engraved in the statue, before turning away.

**I find it important to point out that I say that some yellow pikmin 'smirk'. Well, how exactly can they smirk if they don't have mouths? My view on this is that when one smirks, the eyes become slightly squinted, one sometimes more than the other. Other than that, yellows can see the expressions and moods of others by their eyes—if not their body language. **

**ANYWAY, for those who thought the description of the monument was awful (hey, I sure did), the 'monument' was actually a black bishop from a chess set. I just feel like pointing that out. **

**Another important thing to note (yeah, I know this is long). I know that a lot of the readers are familiar with the works of an author who is considered one of the great pioneers of the Pikmin section. Though I have never actually read any of Ferahgo the Assassin's fics (and I assure you that it is on my 'to do' list), I do happen to know that his expanded universe includes many made up colors of pikmin, such as green. I don't know what characteristics Ferahgo's green pikmin have, but if they are the same as the ones that I am going to give mine, I am sorry for copying his idea. **

**With that said, drop a review, please!**


	19. Through the Grasses

**Okay, so, in this chapter the gang leaves the safety of their home and venture out into the big, wide world. What will happen?**

The yellows made surprising distance in their first day, even exiting the Brush on its northern side. Unlike the western side, however, which was where the Brush turned into the Barrens, the Northern side was not nearly so desolate. Fallen leaves, stones, and eroded slants in the terrain were replaced by massive hills covered in blades of grass that were anywhere from as high as a pikmin to double their height. They dodged these blades of grass, or pushed them out of the way, but they did not stop. They quietly snuck past large grub-dogs that were snoozing among the grasses, and warily watched others who stared at the passing pikmin from some distance away, with only their eyestalks above the grass as they crouched down and tried to avoid being seen. Yeer and Lear were confident, however, that no predator would attack such a large group—if they were wrong, however, they realized that a gruesome fight might occur.

The landscape was made up of inclines that were not very impressive; a slow rise followed by a barely noticeable descent. Thick grasses stretched as far as the eye could see—except for the trees of the Brush, which forever loomed behind the travelers.

Though they had made a considerable amount of progress, night soon fell. Flewow, Lear, and Yeer heard the distant lowing of breadbugs, and hunting calls of grub dogs. Another shrill, cawing shriek rent the night air as the many yellows clambered up the seed-pod's three supporting legs—According to Flewow, it was the call of the serpent-like bird that had eaten the snitchbug attempting to catch Yeer and Lear. Shuddering from the memory, the two hastened their efforts to enter the unfamiliar seed-pod. Once again, the two felt an almost sickening feeling when inhabiting a seed-pod that had not birthed them. Strangely, however, they noticed that Flewow did not seem to mind this, though he did seem a smidgeon edgy.

The next day showed more progress yet again. The group continued to move through the grasses with vigor, but the day also brought unfortunate discoveries.

For one, many of the yellows seemed to take orders not from Lear, Yeer, or Flewow, but from Lead's representative.

Lear had not been noticing the representative, but when he did, the representative was watching them. Lear did not know what he was planning, but by the second day he was followed by a vanguard of several leaf and bud yellows. This confused Lear greatly; _If this puppet's master demoted the leader of these guys, why do they look up to the representative guy?_

Lear discussed this matter with Flewow and Yeer, who were worried about possible rumors being spread through the group, rumors what could lead to a decrease in support for the only two known surviving subjects of Lod.

The day ended, once again, and the yellows all entered the seed-pod before it took off. Crowded together, Flewow, Lear, and Yeer quickly noticed many stares coming their way. It was worrying.

After two more days of trekking, disaster struck.

As they passed through the tall grasses at the head of an incline, Lear quickly noticed the darkening sky. He paused where he was standing, and was about to call out to Yeer when a blob of water soared out of the sky and struck at his feet, knocking him over with an "Oof!"

The nearby yellows saw this, and moved away in shock. Lear looked up from his position on the ground, in a complete daze.

It only took Flewow a second to assess the situation. "A rainstorm is inbound!" He yelled. "Everybody, inside the seed-pod! Hurry, we have little time to—" At the word of 'rainstorm', the yellows began to panic, frantically hurrying towards the seed-pod and trying to move its legs into their demobilized position. Unfortunately, the many scrambling hands were not all working in unison, and not much was being done. Flewow, Lear, and Yeer found it hard to restore order—until the representative also made an effort to get the yellows organized. He was far more successful at commanding them, quickly getting the seed-pod upright.

Though not in time; the rain began to fall quickly, and in a matter of seconds two pikmin were struck by raindrops, their pores clogged as they attempted to shut and prevent any water from being absorbed.

Pikmin were being knocked off their feet, and were choking from the clogged pores. The remaining yellows tried to scramble into the seed-pod as fast as possible; only a few remained to help the choking or injured. Soon, the ground became wet and slippery; since the seed-pod had been put into position at the top of a hill, a slip would usually take a yellow down to the very bottom, where excess water was already beginning to pile up.

Lear and Yeer both began to scramble up on of the legs of the seed-pod, and were some of the last to do so. Lear had a soaked and choking yellow over one shoulder as the sputtering leaf threw his arm around Lear's neck. Yeer was helping to hoist another one of the soaked yellows up the slippery leg. Both managed to get inside—though about fifteen yellows were not so lucky.

Though they only used the seed-pod as shelter from the rain, and did not take off (after all, there was a storm), they could not continue traveling for more than a day. It continued to rain, and there was little talking among Flewow, Lear, and Yeer. They simply sat there, shivering from the cold.

And, through it all, through the death of fifteen yellows, the representative still seemed to be gloating about how easily he had assumed command. Having been one of the first inside, he was not wet, and whenever Lear looked over at him he saw the representative watching him with a smirking gleam in his eyes.

The journey continued after the rainstorm was vanquished by the shining sun, though yellows were prone to slip on the wet ground.

It was on the day when Yeer reached the day of twenty five that the travelers suffered their first attack.

Though the landscape looked the same as it had when they had first entered the grassy plains, there was a distinct difference; instead of looming over their heads, The Brush was far in the distance. Lear wondered what was happening to the other yellows there, and what had happened during the flood.

Lear's thoughts, however, drifted away from his home; much of the time he spent conversing with Flewow and Yeer was not about planning their next move, which had already had been done, nor was it about possible insurrection on the behalf of Lead's representative. It was about the Green pikmin.

As Flewow had said, diplomacy between greens and yellows had always been unstable. Perhaps it was because of the different lifestyles; while yellows were more of gatherers, content to remain in their home territory for their entire lives, greens were hunters, deadly killers who spent their whole lives on the front. Many yellows detested them, calling them "cutthroats", "assassins", and the like, mainly for their deadly combat capabilities, antisocial nature, and notorious history.

According to Flewow, the greens spent their entire lives honing their hunting skills, attempting to become the most talented killing machines among their race. "Another important thing to note," Flewow had told them, almost like a teacher, "Is that, unlike us, the greens do not have a sense of complete unity. Seed-pods and their respective offspring often challenge one another for space.

Since he seemed familiar with their ways, Lear asked Flewow if he had ever met a green pikmin. Flewow had answered with a short "Yes," and had not expanded on the subject, reverting from his normal talkative self to a more thoughtful, quiet demeanor.

However, Lear's train of thought was broken when a loud rusting noise fell upon his ears. He looked to his right, where the noise seemed to have come from, but he could not see through the tall grasses. He hadn't noticed how much tighter together the grasses were in this area. It made it hard for the yellows to communicate, and easier for them to become lost, or attacked by surprise…The perfect spot for an ambush…

Lear immediately became suspicious, and alert. He looked to his side, and saw another two yellows stopped there. "Did you hear that too?" He asked.

"Yes," One responded. The rustling noise came again, only slightly louder this time. The grass nearby seemed to shudder, as if being pushed and rustled against one another.

"Just the wind, I think," Said the third pikmin. Lear, however, was not so sure.

"Maybe…" He said slowly. He sure hoped it was the wind.

But, if it was the wind, why did he not feel the breeze on his leaf?

As this hit him, so did another noise; it started out as a rustle, but suddenly became a much more violent noise, a sound like grass being crushed and trampled…

And then, as he saw a clump of grass suddenly crumple in an abnormal way, he saw a pair of jaws lunge at him through the grass.

"Aah!" Screamed a nearby pikmin in fright, bowled over by the massive mouth. It slammed into Lear, knocking him on his back with a surge of pain. Lear heard a quick nearby grunt, and then a yell of pain.

Out of the corner of his eye he heard a series of terrified screams, and saw several pikmin go flying into the air not fair away. The flew through the air as something emerged out of the deep grasses below them, surfacing with its massive maw first, followed by slobbering jaws, a pair of eyestalks, and then a black body with white spots.

A glob of water, nay, saliva, landed on Lear's stomach, and he looked up at the attacker; a juvenile bulbear, with slobbering jaws releasing drips of saliva onto the ground around Lear. The beast stared down at him with its small eyes, growling over its prize.The beast slowly opened its maw, and the stench of death was strong…

"YAAH!" Lear heard the battle cry as he saw a bud yellow leap at the bulbear, catching it off guard. The yellow pushed the bulbear, which actually stumbled backwards, no longer towering over Lear. The bud stupidly ran right at the beast again, charging towards its jaws, as another pikmin leapt onto the monster's left flank.

Lear leapt to his feet. He looked at the bulbear just in time to see the bud pikmin wrestling with the creature, trying to hold its jaws shut as it stumbled forward at the bud, causing him to slip and lose whatever control he had, if any, of the creature's jaw muscle…

When the bulbear's jaws closed, the only remaining reminder of the bud yellow's life was the tip of a stem, with part of the bud on top bitten clean off.

Lear gave a cry of rage and hurled himself towards the dwarf bulbear, leaping high into the air over the monster's head. The creature had been ignoring the attacking leaf pikmin that had grabbed its left flank, and now attempted to shake it off as Lear cupped his hands together, balled them together in a fist, and slammed them down between the monster's eyestalks as he set his feet solidly on the monster's nose.

The monster roared in not pain, but rage, and tried to shake Lear off—rather successfully. He went flying to the right, tumbling to the ground. The other yellow grabbing onto the beast was also thrown asunder, and the bulbear roared and blundered towards Lear in a disoriented charge; the head injury must have confused it.

He never did make it there, though, because three bud yellows shoulder barged him in the left flank simultaneously, pushing him over. He roared angrily, and the three excellent teammates cheered as they leapt onto him and began to clobber the monster to death. Lear got up again, and walked towards the monster, which, through all of the pain and injury, roared at him in defiance.

"Right back at ya," Lear yelled, swinging his stem sideways toward the beast's already injured head.

With a final roar that still was not of pain, but of fury, the beast moved no more. Follow me," Lear said, running off in the direction of where he had seen the adult bulbear. The others followed him.

Lear quickly found himself in a massive clearing, standing on matted and crushed grass. The monster had smashed the blades of grass over as soon as he had lost the element of surprise, trampling them with brute force. Unfortunately, this made it easier for him to spot the yellows who were still alive, who were trying hit and run tactics.

Lear saw Yeer leading a group of about twenty yellows into a fast retreat, trying to make it to the cover of the tall grass that was still upright, as the monster chased after him. A group of about thirty yellows charged in at the creature from behind, staying silent as Lead's representative motioned them into combat while sticking at the back of his group. Just as it seemed that Yeer's troops were doomed, with the monster towering over them with gaping, hungry jaws, it was beset by the representative's troops, who leapt onto it and clambered atop the monster while clubbing it with their stems. The beast roared angrily and shook itself, throwing yellows in every direction. The representative, who had not leapt on top of the creature, frantically yelled for his pikmin to retreat. He led the retreat as only about twenty of his pikmin followed him, the other ten left to their deaths. Two who had been tossed over the monster's head when it shook landed in front of the beast; one did not move, lying lifeless on the ground, while the other tried to crawl away and then screamed as the monster swallowed him whole, and them gnashed its teeth at the foul taste of grass it had also swallowed in the bite.

Lear looked around the clearing, seeing a dead dwarf bulbear and many yellow corpses, plus those of the wounded who had been trampled by the massive beast. It was then that Lear did something shortsighted, foolhardy, and completely suicidal.

With a battle cry, and followed by the other yellows who had followed him, he charged.

**Ooh, a cliffhanger…interesting…Oh, wait, I WROTE this. I already know what happens. …Sweet. **

**Okay, so, next chapter will conclude this fight. This chapter included a bit more teasing info about the greens, but I can assure you they will begin to get more fleshed out soon…**

**I'm going to go and start **_**Battle Cry **_**now. Bye, every-people!**


	20. Tense Arrival

**Aaah...sitting in this hammock with this pleasant summer breeze and cold, delicious beverage sure is relaxing.**

**...Wait a second. Thumbs was KIDDING!? Aw, man...anyways... **

**This chapter begins with the continuation of the fight from last chapter, but will continue on farther than that.**

Flewow was attempting to gather up the yellows who had been following him. A few moments earlier, when he, Yeer, and Lead's representative had all been taking timed strikes at the beast, a miscalculation had been made and Flewow had lost five of his yellows, bringing the number of troops under his command to only five. He had hastily called them back, and they had fled to the bushes, stumbling over their own feet in panic as they ran. Still, Flewow had gathered them together and was preparing for another strike when he saw Lear, followed by four pikmin, charge directly at the monster while yelling war cries. The monster reared up, and took a heavy step backwards, surprised by the boldness of the move. Three pikmin leapt at him, and grappled onto the front of his face. He roared defiantly and shook, sending the three airborne before they landed in front of him. The monster bit down, and two of the yellows could not escape its fearsome jaws.

Lear had ran right under the creature, and rolled between its legs. As soon as he was behind it, he leapt onto it and clambered up onto the top of the beast, which was distracted and did not seem to know of his presence.

Knowing that Lear was in imminent peril, Flewow decided to distract the beast. He and his followers charged at its back, but the creature turned towards them, letting the survivors of Lear's group escape unharmed, but terrified. The beast roared so loud that its stopped Flewow's squad in their tracks, knocking two yellows off of their feet. Yeer could smell the putrid odor of decaying flesh rush over him.

The beast charged at him, and two of his five man platoon were quickly trampled underfoot. "Oh, dear," Flewow said, stunned with fear as he backed away from the charging monster—for once, at a loss of words. One of his followers fled, screaming, and the beast continued to head straight for Flewow. Flewow backtracked hastily, and saw the tip of Lear's stem above the monster's massive head.

"Arrogant creature!" Flewow heard a voice yell as a rock struck the beast on the nose. It stopped in its tracks, suddenly silent, and turned to its left towards the cause of the noise—and the direction of the rock.

Standing out of cover, by himself, was Lead's representative. He was angrily addressing the monster with both hands clasped behind his back. "Stupid beast! I defy you!"

Flewow was sure that the monster did not comprehend the insults, but it seemed to recognize the representative as the owner of the pebble that had hit him on the nose. The monster roared again, but the representative held his position, glaring up at the monster as Lear clambered up to its eyestalks. The beast roared, and charged at the representative, mouth wide open to devour him.

_The fool! _Flewow thought. _He's going to get himself killed! _And yet, mere seconds before the monster was upon Lead's representative, ten pikmin broke cover on each side of the monster and flung themselves onto its flanks. At the same time, Lear slammed his stem down between the monster's eyestalks.

The combined cranial damage of the critical hit on the beast's weak point, combined with the flanking maneuver performed by the two groups of pkmin, caused the beast to stumble forwards and crash into the ground, sliding forwards through the broken grass and corpses until his maw was less than an inch away from Lead's representative. The creature's fall caused Lear to go flying forwards, over the representative's head and into a patch of still-upright grass nearby. The creature roared repeatedly at the pikmin as they finished it off, the monster unable to move because the fall had broken one of its legs. It looked up at the representative, still wanting to devour him, as the representative glared down at the beast until its eyes finally and faintly closed. Then, the representative strode up onto the monster's back, as near silence fell.

"Victory!" He yelled, throwing his right fist into the air as resounding cheers ensued.

---

The bodies of the dead had placed under swathes of grass, because the ground was not soft enough to dig. The pikmin did not want scavengers, or worse, predators, to eat the bodies and then follow the trail, so they were hidden in the grasses. The two dwarf bulbears and the fully-grown one had been harvested in the seed-pod, and the yellows now had about thirty fresh recruits; Yeer, Lear, and Flewow had not plucked them and named them because they did not want to. The representative did it in their place, though he needed no second word. Flewow thought that the bodies should have brought in more than thirty new sprouts, but he also knew that the condition of a seed-pod had much to do with how many sprouts could be formed from a distinct quantity of food; constant travel meant that more of the food needed to be used as fuel, causing a decrease in newborns.

Still, with thirty more in their ranks, the caravan had suffered unparalleled losses; from the rainstorm and the ambush combined, forty yellows had perished. The new recruits cut these losses down to ten, but thirty newborns could not compare to the experienced bud yellows who had died. They waited around for a day so that the sprouts could develop, and drove scavengers away from their fallen friends before moving on.

Early the day after they plucked the newborns, the pikmin began to notice a change in the landscape. Though it still seemed to rise and lower very subtly, the tall grass began to become less abundant. Soon it disappeared altogether; the yellows broke out of the dense labyrinth of plants and onto hard dirt. Looking around, they saw that the cause of this was clear; blooms of crab-grass grew, albeit sparsely, as well as the occasional tall weed. The sun-scorched earth under their feet was otherwise bare, though the yellows could make out footprints. The footprints themselves were uncommon, but a pikmin could lie down in one and still have space to move about.

The sun gleamed overhead, and it wasn't surprising to the yellows that the ground had dried from the rainstorm so quickly. Even the nearby plants seemed feeble. It was not a desert, but was a massive, bare plain.

"We have arrived," Flewow said as he gazed at the landscape in awe. "This is the ancestral home of the green pikmin: the Great Plains."

"'Great' as in big? Very insightful name," Lear said. The landscape continued as far as the eye could see. "They control all of this territory?"

"Yes, they do, though certain pieces of land are controlled by certain green leaders. As I said, there is no full coalition of the packs," Flewow explained. "I do not know what pack's territory we are in." The group was continuing up an incline as the two talked, and Yeer listened. "I hope we are on good terms with the pack that controls this land. Whether we are or not, make sure to be respectful if we find any green pikmin, or if we are found."

"Got it, Flealowl," Lear said in thanks.

"It's 'Flewow'." Flewow said, aggravated. "Honestly, it is not very challenging to remember someone's…" He never finished his sentence, because the group had reached the top of the incline.

They were standing at the top of a massive cliff.

It was at least a five foot drop to the bottom, and the ground at the bottom was the same as the ground at the top; bare earth, with the occasional plant such as crabgrass. The yellows had a good vantage point from the top of the cliff, and something below them caught their eye.

Below, in the distance, they could make out the shapes of several large creatures; two breadbugs and one iridescent flint beetle, scurrying away from a lone breadbug. The breadbug was trying to keep up, but proved too slow and agitated.

The yellows quickly noticed it was not the breadbug they were running away from, but from the things that seemed to have cut the breadbug off from the rest of the large insects.

The small specks could be made out from the position that the yellows were in, hastily scurrying about near the breadbug. "Green pikmin," Flewow said quietly as he watched.

The trio of greens had cut this breadbug off from the others, and were now surrounding it. The breadbug stopped trying to catch up to the other breadbugs (who were probably out of sight for the creature anyway; having eyes adapted to underground life, breadbugs have poor over-ground eyesight) and halted in its tracks, warily gazing at the three greens as they ran around the creature. It made a deep, lowing noise that even the yellows could hear from far away.

One green was sidestepping around the front of the creature, and the breadbug hunched its flabby, but armored body defensively, wary of an attack. Meanwhile, another green leapt a surprisingly long distance through the air (not going very high at all, but very far, and landed on the breadbug's left flank.

The yellows who watched murmured in surprise as the creature lowed in pain. "What? How can they grab onto the creature's hide? We always slip off; we never have a chance at hunting breadbugs!" Lear exclaimed in confusion. Flewow was too distracted watching the hunt to answer the question.

The creature lowed in pain again, and tried to shake itself, but the green stayed latched onto the side of the large creature. As it was distracted by the first attacker, a second green leapt at its other flank, and the impact (as well as the green not falling off when he struck) caused the breadbug to fall forwards. The third green, the one that had distracted the creature, quickly ran forward and seemed, from the yellows' vague perspective, to bow his head until it was touching the breadbug's. The breadbug writhed in agony, lowing in pain, and then slowly stopped squirming.

"Astounding," Flewow said to no one in particular. He turned towards Lear, and began to say, "Their hunting techniques are truly fastinat—", but stopped when he saw the scene in front of him.

Five yellows , making a semicircle around the group (with none on the cliff-side), had a green arm holding them tight around the neck. Flewow noticed, in horror, that one of the yellows was Lear, and another Yeer. Flewow also noticed that Lead's representative was being held by the throat, the green arm concealing his squirming movements by tightening its grip.

Flewow saw Lear struggling, while Yeer was not moving, instead looking at something. Flewow followed his gaze, and saw through the crowd of nervous yellows what Yeer was looking at.

Standing directly at the tip of the semicircle was a green pikmin who was holding no captive. The greens were barely shorter than the yellows, with only a couple of millimeters in difference. They had slightly more muscular looking legs, and their hands were slightly shorter than those of the yellows. Similarly to yellows, they had almost no neck at all, but a head was clearly noticeable. Perhaps this was because of what was on the head.

The eyes of green pikmin were far different than those of yellows, which were wide white circles with black pupils. The green pikmin's eyes were different, firstly, because they had a tinge of red behind the pupil. Another important difference would be the actual shape of the eyes; they looked like semicircles with the straight side facing upwards at a forty five degree angle, making the greens look angry. The eyes still had the same black pupils, but the eyes looked more ominous with the red tinge.

The greens did not have ears, like the yellows did; the only distinctive thing on their faces, other than their eyes, was a fairly wide slit that looked like a mouth. On each side of the long mouth, however, was a long, gleaming, white fang; the fangs reached from the mouth (a little more than a third of the way up the face) down to the very bottom of the head, and were slightly curved inwards. The greens holding prisoners had one of their fangs situated in killing position just above their restraining arm, and Flewow knew that the fangs could impale a yellow in the blink of an eye. The greens who had captives glared at the other yellows from over the shoulders of the yellows they were holding. Flewow noticed, with some dismay, that each of the greens had a purple flower on the top of a stem. Their stems were considerably shorter than a yellow's stem, only about three fourths the size.

"Explain quickly, intruders," The green without a captive said in a hissing voice that might have been caused by his fangs, or the tone of malice he was using. "What exactly are you doing in our territory?"

---

**Okay, when I say "hissing voice", it is hardly supposed to be a lisp caused by their fangs. They just sort of hiss as they speak. Oh, and about those "fangs"—I realize that one kind of pikmin already has a mouth, yes, but blues have gills, and their mouths aren't as wide—and important—as a green's is to the green pikmin.**

**Also, I feel the need to describe the Great Plains better, because the description was pretty bad in my opinion. This is not, like, the great African savannah, nor is it a wasteland or desert. Think 'Mundi Mundi Plains' and you have the right picture, except less plants. If you've never seen those plains in particular, just Google them or something.**


	21. Invasion

**This short chapter is the first that is not connected to the travelers. I don't really have anything else to say, so here goes.**

---

The wall crumbled in front of them. The two workers went about their tasks for a second more before noticing the hole. The only thoughts in their brains were those being relayed to them: _Workers, solidify the tunnels. _

When the hole appeared, though, armored hides and heads with curved, sharp jaws came through. They were not listening to the same orders. They set upon the workers, smashing and biting. They did not use their stingers, for they knew that their relatives were immune.

In very little time, most of the workers had been struck down, their carcasses lying on the tunnel's floor as more invaders poured through the hole, trampling the corpses. Throughout the colony, holes were shattering tunnels and the invaders poured in, unhampered.

A new thought spread through the minds of the surviving workers. _Workers, retreat towards the inner tunnels. Soldiers, suppress the attackers and protect the workers. _

Of course, the workers paid the commands meant for soldiers no heed, just as the soldiers paid the workers' orders no heed. The surviving workers moved away from the holes as fast as their six legs could carry them, heading deeper into the tunnel network. The invaders followed after them, spreading through the tunnels quickly and efficiently. Many workers who had been injured—a broken foot, a missing antenna—proved too slow, and could not outrun the invading insects.

The workers who did prove fast enough continued on their way, but now budged past larger insects heading in the other direction; soldiers.

The invaders clashed with the soldiers, but the soldiers proved tougher; mandibles snapping and breaking invaders' bodies like toothpicks, spiked carapaces stabbing into invaders in the way, they smashed back towards the holes. Many invaders got past them and continued down the tunnels, following the workers.

However, there were simply too many invaders for the defenders to handle; more and more of the invaders began to break through, and the hordes were soon crushing soldier bodies, former foes and allies, under their legs.

The invaders had their own set of orders: _sweep through the hive, kill all targets, and make your way to the center of the colony._

And they did just that; soon, the defenders were completely overrun, and their orders once again switched: _soldiers, fall back towards the center of the hive_. They fled, but some were brought down by the hordes of invaders. _Defend the birthing chambers_. The defenders came together inside the birthing chambers, where many workers were passing through to get closer and closer to the center of the hive. Soon, the massive hordes began to pour into the birthing chamber as well, and the defenders had no chance. They were cut down, and the eggs and larvae inside the chamber were destroyed as the invaders proceeded onward.

The tunnels were soon swarming with invaders, which were all headed to the same destination; and workers caught in the stampede were mopped up and then trodden into the ground.

The last of the soldiers defending the hive had been killed in the birthing chambers; once they had fallen, the invaders were free to run amuck and kill all in their path…As long as that path took them to their destination.

It wasn't long until the first batch of invaders, who had a head start on the others, reached the center of the hive. It was a large, open room with many entrances, and was at least three feet tall and four feet long. In the very center of the room was their target.

_Kill the Queen. _

They charged at the large, fleshy blob with faces similar to their own. The Queen rolled towards them, using her massive body to move across the room quickly. Several of the invaders were crushed underneath her as he rolled, but she had to stop when she hit a wall. The invaders scrambled onto her and began biting and stabbing with their stingers (not to poison, but merely to pierce her unarmored skin). She rolled towards the other wall, flattening more of the invaders, but one managed to crawl up to her large, bloated head, double the size of the invader itself. With his scythe-like jaws, the invader bit down at the head.

As the body continued to roll in one direction, the head did not roll with it. It lay on the ground nearby, still opening and closing its jaws and wiggling its antennas for a brief moment before ending all movement.

Throughout the hive, any surviving workers suddenly froze, not moving. A few seconds later, they began to wander aimlessly through the hive's many tunnels, no thought in their heads. They seemed in a trance, though not the one that they had been in when the Queen was alive. Many walked right towards awaiting invaders, who cut them down in an instant.

New orders were received by the invaders. _Kill any more targets alive in the hive, and spread through it. Bring me the Queen. _

It took many invaders to heft the Queen's massive body into the air and carry it; her two foot long body was very heavy. The procession lead the carriers past droves of other invaders who were moving through the hive, ending the lives of thoughtless, brainless survivors. Behind the invaders toting the body was another invader with the head clamped between his jaws.

They made their way through one of the gaping holes, moving over the many worker bodies underfoot, and back into their own tunnel network—or at least the tunnels that had been built to break into the attacked colony. They passed through their own hive, moving past the many workers that paid them no mind as they set about menial tasks.

The carriers soon entered a chamber similar to the one where they had found and killed the Queen of the other hive; in the center of the room was another Queen, and this one looked almost exactly the same. The invaders set down the body near the Queen, and then left through the tunnel that they had entered through.

The Queen lumbered over to the carcass, and opened her jaws. She took a bite out of the fleshy skin that had been the deceased Queen's body, and prepared to take another bite as she ate the Queen's unborn children, not killing them, but merely swallowing them and their genetic makeup. Soon she would be giving birth to a new batch of warriors that would look exactly the same as the hulking soldiers that had fought her smaller invaders.

The largest hive of the Barrens now had another class of warrior under its command.

---

**So, as you can see, these guys are all connected by caste to the Queen, who relays them orders that are by caste only. How does she react to stuff so quickly so that she can relay new orders? That will be explained in the future. Until then, read n' review, please!**


	22. Negotiations

**Five pages long, without the author notes, but it is a lot of discussion, which tends to take up a lot of space. It's a pretty quick read.**

---

Flewow couldn't deny he was trembling in fear. It was not fear for his own life—at least, not all of it—but he was well aware that if he said something that was not to the greens' liking, he would have five yellow deaths to answer for.

Of course, it would probably end up being more than five.

He saw the leader of the greens glaring at him, waiting for an answer. The greens were perceptive, they had managed to grab three of the four leaders, and that was no mere coincidence. They must have known that they were in charge before they selected their targets.

"Erm…" Flewow stammered, the green pikmin glaring at him. "We…come in peace." He said. "We wish to speak to the Alpha of your pack."

"You are speaking to him," The lead green, or Alpha, replied.

"We have humbly come to ask for assistance," Flewow continued. If he had make the wrong choice to come here, it could end up costing many lives.

The green smiled, his fangs glinting in the midday sun. "Yes…We should have expected you need us to fix your problems, don't you?" He said with a throaty chuckle, and the other greens joined in.

The moving of the green mouths disturbed Flewow; he was not used to watching the mouths twist, open, and close to form syllables. It was distracting, similarly to what the greens experienced when they conversed with the yellows. "We have come to warn you of a great threat that lies to the west," Flewow continued.

This seemed to interest the leader. "What is this threat, then? A threat to a yellow is different than a threat to a green." The other greens laughed again, and the yellows began to grow angry.

"Please, just listen to us," Flewow begged. He got down on one knee. "We are at you mercy." The other yellows followed his example, kneeling and bowing their heads to the Alpha.

The Alpha seemed surprised, but quickly said, "As you have been for countless generations." The paused again, in thought, and then said, "We will _escort _you back to our seed-pod, where we will question you further, in custody. Do not try anything, any of you, or you'll all be dead before you can scream." He then turned, and motioned to the green holding Lear. The green began to back up, still holding Lear in a death grip. The other greens spread out into a full circle around the yellows, and began to follow the green holding Lear. "Right this way," The Alpha said in a hiss.

The group trudged down the side of the cliff to the lower ground, and then began their trek. The dirt under their feet was a bit looser from the many beasts that walked across it, but it was still impossible to burrow into it. This is why Flewow assumed the iridescent flint bug had not simply dug underground when running away from the greens who were on the hunt.

They trudged along for a long time, not stopping for any reason. The captive yellows had, by this time, accepted their predicament and stopped squirming. They simply walked along, trying to ignore the fact that any sudden moves by their friends would result in death.

As the group passed wildlife, the yellows noticed that all the creatures—even the predators—were giving them a wide berth. Breadbugs moved in herds—something that Flewow had never seen before; he had always thought that they were solitary. Flint beetles clung to the groups, looking for protection. Flewow also saw several large blowhogs trudging in the other direction, warily watching the group of pikmin for any sudden moves. A bulbear spotted them, and trudged away in fear. The only things that did not seem to run from them were the largest predators on the plains: enormous thorn-mouthed bulbaxes that were larger in size than bulbears. The creatures had one eye that was larger than the other, and a massive mouth with enormous front teeth that were in front of rows and rows of sharp, shark-like teeth. A pair of the titan beasts were stalking a nervous looking giant breadbug. The two were also followed by a number of dweevils, eager to scavenge a bit of the kill.

It took them a long time to get to the green seed-pod, which was in the shade of a tall weed. The seed-pod looked similar to the yellow one (which was still being carried along), and had a similar pattern on it. The only major differences were that the pod was green, and the flower on top was purple.

The greens who were standing around the pod looked up and saw the approaching caravan. Flewow noticed almost all of them had flowers on their stems. The greens ran out and thickened the circle around the yellows.

The group stopped only about a few inches from the green pod. The Alpha moved away and hissed, "Bring your leaders to me." Flewow did not know whether to ask if the captives could be freed, since Lear and Yeer (and the representative) were being held, but the greens released their grip on Yeer and Lear, who fell to the ground weakly. Flewow motioned to them to get up, and noticed the representative was still held captive.

"Erm…" He mumbled, and Yeer and Lear knew what he was about to say. Lear shook his head at Flewow, but Yeer slowly nodded; they could not just leave a yellow, selfish or not, in a possibly-fatal situation. "One of our leaders is still being held."

"Oh?" The Alpha asked, more to himself than to the yellows. "Which one?"

"Him," Lear said with a hint of malice as he pointed to Lead's representative.

"Really?" The Alpha said curiously. "I did not realize he was important." He chuckled slightly, and hissed, "Release him." The green let go of Lead's representative, who stumbled forward and flashed his captor a dirty look before walking over to Yeer, Lear, and Flewow.

"Three leaf yellows and one bud yellow," The Alpha observed. "Where is your…Chieftain, as you call him?"

"He is not with us," Lear said, and the Alpha did not know that Lear meant that Chieftain Lod was not among the living. Neither did the representative, of course; he thought that Lear was talking about Yedel.

"What are you, then?" The Alpha asked, hissing as he did so. "Rebels?"

"No. We have been sent by the Yellow High Council," Flewow replied.

"We will discuss this supposed 'threat' you speak of in private." The Alpha said. "Follow me." He walked towards the large, towering plant nearby, and the four leaders followed him. Yeer shot a worried glance back to the rest of the yellows, and noticed that three more captives had been taken to replace him, Lear, and the representative.

They walked to the other side of the weed, and then the Alpha hissed, "Sit." The others did as requested, though the representative looked as if he was about to object about being ordered around.

Then, the Alpha shot him a look that made him shut up. He sat, and so did the Alpha.

"What is this 'threat' that requires the attention of the greens?" The Alpha asked.

Yeer, Lear, and Flewow looked at one another, wondering who should explain. The representative opened his mouth and began to say something, but Lear purposely interrupted him by loudly saying, "Yeer, why don't you explain?"

"Uh, okay." Yeer said, cleared his pores, and began. "A group of yellows setting out for new lands discovered a great power that lies to the east in a barren wasteland devoid of almost all life. This power is a form of beast with armored hides, powerful jaws, and an army strong enough to seize our homeland."

"Ah," The Alpha interrupted, "But does it have enough power to seize _ours_?"

"For ages, you and your people have prospered in these lands," Flewow picked up. "When we tell you that this danger is beasts, you are probably assuming we mean stupid, large, lesser animals. But please do not mistake our enemy. These are smart, unrelenting armies," He paused, looking to Yeer and Lear to see if what he said was essentially correct based on their encounters with the beasts, and they nodded. "If the Brush falls, they will prosper off of the wealth of our lands, expand their armies, and continue. The more land they take, the more strength they will have. Nearby regions will quickly fall, and no one would be able to stop them." Flewow was improvising; he had no idea if the monsters would actually attack the Brush, but this seemed to be an effective argument, seeing as the Alpha actually seemed slightly interested. "We come in search of aid in our battle against these monsters, and we know that the might of the greens would make a great addition to our forces." _Compliments can't hurt_, Flewow thought.

"We have never forgotten the battle of the Tall Grasses, yellow," The Alpha said quietly. Yeer and Lear had no idea what he was talking about, but they knew not to speak out of turn.

"Neither have we," Flewow said, apparently knowing, "But we have also not forgotten the Maintaining of the Western Fields. The teamwork shown there is one of the reasons we came."

_What are they talking about? _Lear wondered.

There was a long pause, and then the Alpha said, "You could not have picked a worse time to arrive, yellow. Do you not realize how soon the Great Hunt is?"

_What is all of this stuff? _Yeer thought. _Great Hunt? Flewow never mentioned that. Does he know? Was he not telling us all he knew? _

"We know, and we are willing to wait until after the Great Hunt if you will join us." Flewow replied. _Are we, though? How long will this hunting thing take?_ Lear thought.

The green stared at Flewow, and then hissed, "I have no reason to see why we should help you."

"If we proved ourselves to you, would you have a reason then?" Yeer asked curiously.

"What are you talking about, yellow?" The Alpha said, turning to Yeer. It was clear that he thought of the leaders, as well as the rest of the yellows, as beneath contempt.

Yeer didn't really know how they would prove themselves, he had just pointed out the possibility. However, it had given Flewow a good idea. "If you will allow us to join into the Great Hunt, we can show you that we are not as weak and feeble as you think."

"Join the Great Hunt!?" The Green hissed, sounding offended. "Some greens would kill you for such a suggestion, yellow. None but greens have taken part in the Great Hunt for far more than my lifetime."

"All of the food we got would go straight to you," Flewow bargained. Yeer and Lear did not know if this was a big offer, because they had no clue what the Great Hunt actually was.

The green stared at Flewow again. "We will release the yellow prisoners we have taken and ponder the matter for now," The Alpha said. "We will give you our decision by tomorrow's sunset. Until then, you can set up your camp in that direction. A good distance away." He said, pointing behind Flewow. "But be warned, yellow; if you try anything that would harm my pack in any way, you will not see the light of the day after we reach a decision." He stood up and said, "Go. Now." Before walking back to the yellows.

Flewow looked nervously at Lear and Yeer, who now knew that some things had not been told to them. "Flewow, we need to have a little talk," Lear said.

---

**What are all of those things Flewow talked about? They will be explained next chapter.**


	23. Further Reasoning

**IT…IS…BACK!**

**Yeah, I know, I thought for a second that it was gone too. But guess what? It ISN'T. Still, I couldn't have picked a better time to stop writing, eh?**

**Ah, well. All I've been doing since school started is working, eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing. What, you ask. HALO 3, of course! What else!?**

**So, let's just do a recap of things to get the memory goin': The yellow gang's in the Great Plains, and they have started to negotiate with the greens. They came to an agreement, but now the greens are going to think about it some more, and are original duo has no idea what happened in the negotiations! Wanna find out what happens? READ ON!**

"You've been keeping information from us," accused Lear.

"Alright, perhaps I have been, but it was for the good of the mission," Flewow said.

Yeer and Lear glared at him. "You just made a bargain, and we didn't even know what we were bargaining. It would have been sort of nice, to, y'know, actually understand that argument." Lear said angrily.

"What is the Great Hunt?" Yeer asked. "Tell the truth."

"The Great Hunt is, well, it's quite complicated—"

"Tell us," Yeer interrupted. "No excuses."

Flewow sighed. "Once every half-year, all the non-predatory animals in the Great Plains migrate. In the beginning half of the year, they go east, in the other, they go west, back to wherever they came from. They travel through the Great Plains and through large canyons on the outskirts of green-controlled territory. All of the green packs gather during the migration to cooperate and hunt together. They attempt to get enough supplies to rest easy until the next migration. These massive hunts are called Great Hunts. Greens usually disallow other colors from helping them in the hunt, but I am hoping that they may make an exception so that we can prove our worth."

"And how, exactly, are we going to do that!?" Lear asked angrily. "You know we don't have a chance at hunting a breadbug, much less _giant _breadbugs, or…whatever lives out here."

"Do not fret," Flewow said. "I have a plan."

"What's the Battle of the Tall Grasses, and what is the Maintaining of the Western Fields?" Yeer inquired coldly.

Flewow sighed again, and began to explain. "Many, many years ago, before our Chieftains were born, before _their _Chieftains were born, bulbears became incredibly overpopulated on the western side of the Great Plains. The greens knew that they had to bring down the population before all of the other animals were wiped out by the bulbears, but even when the green packs all teamed up, they simply did not have enough strength to handle the masses of bulbears. They sent for help, grudgingly mind you, and the yellows sent it. Working together, yellows and greens managed to bring the bulbear population down to normal levels.

However, the yellows demanded their own share of the bulbears in return for the assistance they had given, as well as a decent amount of land. The greens said that they would allow the yellows to have their share of bulbears from the winnings, but they refused to give up any land. A battle broke out between the two colors, and the yellows were overpowered. They fled back towards the Brush, and were hunted down by the greens. Halfway through the grasses that make a border between yellow and green territory, reinforcements arrived from the Brush. It was supposedly a very fierce battle and, though the greens won, losses weighed heavily on each side's shoulders, especially the greens, who had a smaller population to begin with.

Since then, yellows have tried to apologize and reason with the greens, but very few diplomatic meetings have ever been held."

"And you _didn't _tell us all of this stuff 'for the good of the mission'? How exactly does _that _make sense?" Yeer asked.

"Well, you see, it has been an awfully long time since the knowledge of the yellows has seen an update…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lear asked.

"Well, I thought that if I told you about our history with the greens, you would object—"

"You're darn right we would!" Lear yelled. "It sounded to me like that 'discussion' we had with that Alpha guy was simply him wondering how quickly it would be over. If we had said anything wrong, he would have killed us! If sure would be nice for him to get the leaders of the opposition out of the way quickly!"

"Well, that might have been a possibility, but you have to remember that there were four of us," Flewow argued, though he knew that the four of them did not stand a chance against the Alpha. "The reason I skipped certain details—"

Lear scoffed loudly.

"…Was because the yellow knowledge base has not been added to for a long time," Flewow said.

"…Okay, so how would lying to us help that change?" Yeer asked.

"Well, while we're here we could learn some of the green hunting techniques and ways of life that could benefit our own lives. Believe me, I meant for the best."

"Okay, I can sort of see your point, Fewho." Yeer said, and Flewow would have gone ballistic if he was not trying to apologize. "Honestly, though, you need to tell us everything you know before you go off on your own little errands."

"Are you going to forgive him this easily?" Lear asked, surprised. Yeer turned to him.

"We have a deadline to reach, Lear. There's no point in wasting time arguing among each other." He said.

"Yeah, but what if we don't reach that deadline?" Lear asked.

"We cannot let that happen." Yeer said, and then added, "So, Flewow, let's hear this plan of yours."

---

It was the next morning, and the entire group of yellows were assembled not very far away from their seed-pod. They were all standing in a group, listening to one yellow who was standing in front of them: Flewow. In the distance behind Flewow was a large, slow moving creature that was sniffing the ground.

"Gentlemen," Flewow said, pointing to the creature. "That…is a breadbug."

Total silence. Yeer slowly said, after the long pause, "Um…okay."

"In the next few days it is quite possible that you will see swarms of them covering this landscape, in a whole matter of sizes. We may be hunting as many as possible."

"But…we can't hunt breadbugs." A bud yellow said from the crowd."

"Precisely!" Flewow exclaimed, and all of the yellows looked at him like he was crazy. "That is why we are going to _learn _how to hunt them."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lear mumbled.

"Green pikmin are fully capable of hunting them, so why can't we?" Flewow said, and many yells of agreement sounded from the crowd. "Alright everyone, surround the breadbug and make sure it doesn't escape!"

The yellows yelled in agreement and charged. The Breadbug only noticed them after it was too late; the creature was completely surrounded. One yellow gave a yell of fury and leapt at the breadbug's left flank. He bounced off of the side of the breadbug, and fell on his back nearby with a grunt of pain. Some snickers could be heard from the crowd, but the breadbug seemed confused, and curiously turned to face the yellow.

"Alright, everyone, slam into the beast on its left flank!" Flewow ordered, and a wave of yellows charged and rammed into the creature. It wobbled from the impact, but did not seem hurt or bothered very much. Eventually, it wobbled a bit too much, and rolled over completely until it was once again on its feet.

"Try it's head! It might have less defense there!" Flewow suggested, and a yellow leapt up and threw a punch at the breadbug's face. The breadbug quickly nodded upwards, sending the yellow flying into the air. He landed on another pair of yellows among the crowd, and all three fell over. Once again, the yellows shoved it over on its flank, but it righted itself with no problem at all.

This chain of orders, attempts, and failures continued for a long time. In the end, the breadbug trotted away from a mass of exhausted, tired yellow pikmin. "We're doomed," Lear panted as he lay stomach down on the ground.

Flewow, however, was not among the exhausted ones lying on the ground. He was sitting on the edge of a cliff not very far away, looking down upon a scene unraveling in the area below.

A giant breadbug was backing up, hastily moving away from a thorn-toothed bulbax that was slowly advancing towards it. The giant breadbug was running out of space, and would soon be pressed against the cliff's side. It was clear that it had no chance of escape unless it moved to the left or right.

However, there were green pikmin watching each flank.

They had created a large semicircle around the giant breadbug, and were yelling commands to one another, trying to know what sort of move the breadbug would attempt. What shocked Flewow, however, was that the greens were walking and dashing right under the bulbax without a care in the world—they did not fear it, and it did not fear them. The bulbax and the pikmin were working together to bring down their mutual prey.

New plans began to formulate in the scholar's head.

---

It was later that day that Flewow, Lear, and Yeer met under the yellow seed-pod to converse with one another. They were almost alone under the pod, as most of the tired yellows had gone up into the pod, exhausted at the day's exercise.

"Um, no offense or anything, but that practice was a complete failure," Lear began, talking to Flewow.

"On the contrary," Flewow replied, sounding offended, "It was not a failure of any sort. We learned that brute force can not bring down the beasts, and it will take some sort of piercing to wound them. That is how the greens manage to hurt them; they dig their fangs deep into the hide of their prey. I have a very good idea of how we can still succeed in hunting the breadbugs."

"I don't know if all of our company would be willing to listen to you," Yeer said gravely. "I noticed Lead's representative did not join us in attempt to fell the breadbug, and he will probably be urging the tired, depressed yellows who just joined him in the seed-pod that the whole attempt was a huge waste of time."

"Which some of them already think it was," Lear pointed out, and Flewow glared at him. "…What?" He asked the scholar. Yeer was not paying attention to either of his friends, though, because he had spotted something.

"Look," He said, motioning behind them. They turned, and saw the Alpha watching them as he stood about halfway across the distance that separated the green and yellow seed-pods. He was alone—the only green pikmin in sight. "He's waiting."

"Huh?" Lear asked, rather stupidly.

"That isn't even a word," Flewow said.

"Pay attention, you guys!" Yeer said to the other two. "The Alpha Green is waiting for us over there! He's probably going to tell us whether we can stay!"

"Oh, right," Lear said. "Let's go meet him, then." He turned to walk in the direction of the Alpha, but Yeer continued.

"Um…You don't suppose he only wants one of us to go and meet him, do you?" Yeer asked. "I mean, he is out there by himself…" Yeer paused, waiting for the reaction.

"I suppose you could be right, Yeer," Flewow said.

"Yeah," Lear said shortly. "You should go, Fleawho."

"What? Why? And I'm not going to go anywhere if you don't say my name right!" Flewow spluttered, both annoyed and confused by the suggestion.

"Lear is right. You should go, you already did almost all of the negotiating," Yeer said. Flewow looked from Lear to Yeer nervously; he did not want to go alone.

He sighed, and said, "All right, I'm going." He turned his back on them and walked towards the Green Alpha.

It seemed like it took him a long time to get to the green, perhaps because he knew that both of his friends and the Alpha were watching him. He stared right back at the Alpha, and silently walked up to him.

"Ah, so you are the Alpha of your pack," The Alpha hissed thoughtfully. "I had already assumed as much." Flewow was a surprised at the false assumption that the Alpha had made, but he did not want to point out the fact that the green was wrong—relations between the two colors were already tense.

"Have you come to a decision?" He asked the Alpha.

The Alpha paused, and said, "My pack has decided to allow your pack to join the Great Hunt." Flewow was relieved; he hadn't thought that the greens would reach such a position. "We have also decided to allow you to prove yourselves to us; if you perform on standards that would not shame a green in the Great Hunt, we will know that these insects to the west are worthy of being the prey of greens."

Flewow could not believe his good fortune; if they proved worthy, the greens would join them to fight the Barren insects!

"…However," The Alpha hissed darkly, "If you perform as we expect you to perform, and prove to be a waste of our time, we will give you a day to flee from our ancestral land. After that, you will become targets."

The insults and the Alpha's tone of voice were not worrying compared to what the Alpha had just said. Then again, it was not as if the yellows had any choice about the decision; they were not strong enough to argue.

**It wasn't very long, or good, for that matter—I know. I've got to get those writing styles up to speed again, though, and the story also breaks 100 pages with this chapter. High fives all around!**

**Guess its that time again, huh? (Pulls out snowglobe, and shatters it, taking the snow and letting it roll away.) Back to work, little guy. **

**R & R to help that snowball get bigger! …Or go and find a pop-up ad that makes you enlarge snowballs to get a free (insert new-wave item here). I'm sure there's some out there. **


	24. Trek

**AAAH SCHOOL! YOU HURT ME SO!**

**Ahem. Sorry about that.**

**Well, it has certainly been a long time…once again. Even Turkey has passed us by. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving (V Rex, I hope you guys had a good holiday too, up there. Yeah, thought I'd forget, didn't you?). **

**So, we continue with the gangs foreign-ventures in the Great Plains, eh? Oh, wait, but not only that—this chapter isn't very long, but the end has an interesting twist. I hope everybody enjoys reading it.**

"Lear? …Lear? Are you awake?" Yeer curiously prodded his friend, who hadn't moved since the seed-pod landed several minutes ago. He has his fingers and short, stubby toes still stuck to the interior wall of the seed-pod; it was through this that yellow pikmin absorbed energy from their seed-pod.

Of course, Lear wasn't asleep. After the events of the previous day, however, he had decided that it would be prudent not to wake up. The breadbug had almost fallen on him once, and he was not about to let that happen again.

Due to the frequency of his attempts to skip work, Lear had become pretty good at faking sleep. He shifted away from his friend slowly, and any pikmin other than Yeer would have believed that he was asleep.

"Perhaps we should just leave him here for a while?" Flewow suggested, standing behind Yeer.

"No, we'll get him up," Yeer replied, suspecting a trick on his lazy friend's behalf. "Lear," He said quietly, "Some yellows found a bit of nectar out back, but its going fast."

Lear stayed as still as he could, but he could not help but wonder if it was a trick. After all, he did love nectar…He considered the pros and cons of getting up as he kept his eyes closed tightly.

Yeer pretended to sigh. "Alright then, we better go now if we want to get some nectar for ourselves. His loss," He said, but did not move. He then shuffled his feet a little, and saw that Flewow was about to say something, and quickly motioned for the scholar not to talk.

Lear decided, at that point, that he was going to have to get up eventually. The probability of there actually being nectar nearby was low, of course, but it was better than nothing. "Okay, I'm up, I'm up," He said, detaching himself from the side of the pod.

"Excellent!" Flewow said, and turned to leave the pod.

"Uh, so…which way to the nectar, exactly?" Lear said, stretching.

"Oh, just follow Flewow out that entrance. It's right outside," Yeer replied pleasantly. Lear curiously stuck his head out of the entrance, looking around for nectar.

"Hey, there isn't any nectar any—whoah!" Lear began, but received a shove from behind that pushed him off of the short entrance, and he landed on the ground below with a grunt.

"Works every time," Yeer said to Flewow as they slid down the seed-pod's leg.

"Well, today is the day," Flewow said happily, though there was clearly tension in his voice. He received blank stares from both of the other yellows.

"Um…_yes_," Lear said, trying to make it sound like he understood what the scholar meant.

"What are you talking about?" Yeer asked quickly, remembering how the scholar had not told them very much about the greens earlier. _Has he been skipping details again_? Yeer thought.

"If my seasonal calculations are accurate, then this is the day that the greens will start migrating to intercept the prey species as part of the Great Hunt!" Flewow said.

"Great," Lear said shortly. "This means more walking, doesn't it?"

"Well, of course."

"Damn it all."

---

They kept a good distance from the greens at all times—upwards of five feet. The yellows who weren't carrying their seed-pod were closely huddled around it, and the greens were moving in a similar fashion. Lear could easily make out the greens motioning towards the yellows now and then, and occasionally laughing to one another about something. Of course, there were a lot of jokes running through the groups of yellows about their "allies" as well. Once, a yellow holding part of one of the seed-pod's legs mentioned to the other, "Hey, if they don't be careful, they might get those teeth stuck in one another," To which the nearby yellows laughed, and one replied, "You always look on the bright side of things!" Which invoked more laughter—some from Lear himself.

Flewow spent quite a bit of his time staring out into the distance as they walked, gazing at the continuing plains. Yeer, meanwhile, helped to carry the seed-pod. However, he found himself thinking upon other matters, and was soon bored. He called out to Flewow, who then came to his side. "What are you thinking about?" He asked the scholar.

"Well, I'm wondering what the reaction of the other green packs will be when we meet them," He began. "Do you think they will be as unwelcoming as this?"

"Yes."

"Unfortunately, that is the most probable outcome, I think."

"Hey, who knows?" Yeer replied. "As you said, we don't know to much about the greens; maybe some don't feel so bad about us."

The fact of the matter was, however, that the pikmin were not going see another green pack for quite a while. The next group to join their convoy was not anything pikmin related.

Flewow watched as a group of bulborbs with tan coloration and well-camouflaged hides dashed past. They were smaller than most dwarf bulborbs, but they mad more muscular legs, and they were moving with about twice the speed of a regular dwarf bulborb, yipping and howling to one another as they went. They gave the yellows a wide berth as they passed.

Even later, the massive thorn-toothed bulbaxes that populated the region began lumbering into sight from far and wide, moving at their own pace. Many passed in twos or threes—an awe-inspiring sight for many of the pikmin. The greens did not give the other predators a care in the world, and the larger bulbaxes did not seem to notice the greens.

And so, day turned into night, and the greens and yellows stopped. The next day, they continued, and Lear found himself holding up part of the seed-pod beside Yeer. Flewow, meanwhile, seemed intent on taking in anything he saw for documentation upon their return, to which Lear commented, "That sounds like an excuse to me, pal."

Near the beginning of the next day, the pikmin saw the beginning of a large canyon in the distance, which was exactly what they were looking for. Flewow informed his compatriots that the breadbugs and other creatures headed right through the canyon and towards its other side, which eventually left Green territory.

It was also the same time that they found another interesting thing.

Yeer was looking almost straight downwards at his feet, doing his best to ignore the exhaustion he was feeling in his arms. He felt someone nudge his shoulder, and slowly turned his head to see an equally tired Lear.

"Hey…check it out," He commented, and Yeer followed his gaze and saw something coming in from the north.

A second green seed-pod, hefted high off of the ground, was making its way towards the other one. Five greens stood in a line in front of the pod, and Yeer noted that the one standing in the middle had a flower on its stem. Its stem, however, was crooked from the top of its head, at about a seventy degree angle.

Yeer continued to watch as the green strode forward and greeted the other seed-pod's Alpha with a nod of his head. As they stood and talked, seven greens carrying a breadbug strode forward and left it at the non-crooked stemmed Alpha's feet. Seven more greens hurried to pick it off and whisk it away as the two Alphas strode, side by side.

---

Dirt and sand as far as they eye could see. Nothing special, just never ending desert. The sun shone down brutally on the single leaf pikmin who was making his way through the Barrens.

_Nothing…but bloody…rocks! _He cursed inwardly, weakly pulling himself up another hill. _I would have been better off just running._

He was hopelessly lost. When the refugees of Lod's seed-pod had fled from the area where the bugs had attacked, he had broken off from the main group. He had just wated to see what had happened…maybe Lod was still alive…he had to be.

But alas, he had no idea in what direction he should have gone quickly into his mission. He had found another pikmin with a similar mission, but the pikmin had been too tired to even move.

The leaf pikmin cursed his back luck, he cursed the bugs, and he cursed the Barrens. What was he to do? He had been wandering aimlessly for days on end—he had lost count, since all of them were essentially the same. Every day, however, he felt himself becoming weaker and weaker—sure, photosynthesis helped, but he couldn't live without a seed-pod's energy for forever.

He stopped, hands on his knees, and coughed. It was a natural reaction—his pores were clogged with sand and dirt, making it hard to breathe. All he could do was hope for a miracle.

He closed his eyes and let himself fall to the ground, waiting for something to happen. Just…something. If nothing out of the ordinary occurred, he would surely go mad.

_Nothing…nothing…Wait! What was that? _He tried to focus in with his earsbut he did not want to open his eyes for fear of realizing that he was wrong. He simply lied there, hearing a strange noise. It tapped and clacked softly, but was slowly getting louder. _What could it be?_ He desperately wanted to open his eyes, but once again the idea of being wrong kept them shut.

The noise suddenly ceased. Could he have been wrong? Was there nothing that would ever change in the blasted wasteland.

With a sigh, he opened his eyes, and saw the widening mandibles of an armored insect looming above him.

Screams carried far over the hills of the Barrens.

**So, yeah. Bad times for the folks without a GPS.**

**If anyone notices, I managed to sneak a line from Halo 3 in here—"Hey, check it out". MAN, it's a good game. The entire story is filled with the references—everything from the number "seven" to the scene where Yeer and Lear reported to the 3 Chieftains (Halo 2's opening trial and the 3 prophet hierarchs, anyone?) **

**So, with the holiday season lurking upon us with candy-cane shaped weapons of all sorts being brandished (wait, what?), I probably won't have to start this next chapter with "Hey, long time no see, everypeople!"**

**So, want more Barrens references like this, or not? TELL ME. FILL MY MIND WITH KNOWLEDGE. How exactly, reviews, of course!**


	25. Hunt

**W00t! another update, and fast! …Sort of.**

**So, you may have noticed by the scrollbar that this is the longest chapter yet…by a lot. It's a whopping twelve pages long (wow, how can I call this long after reading Through Red Eyes?). Not only that, but this chapter has the most action yet. I hope everyone likes it.**

Yeer groggily detached himself from the side of the seed-pod's interior—he had absorbed enough energy to last a long time while he was asleep. He stood to his full height, and the top of his stem almost brushed the ceiling.

It still felt very strange to be in a seed-pod other than the one that birthed him. He looked around and saw Flewow still gripped to the side of the pod, and Lear was nearby too. He shook Flewow awake, and the scholar quickly looked up at him.

"Today's the day," Yeer said quietly, voicing both of their thoughts.

"Yes," Flewow replied shortly, which was odd for him. "Today is the day."

Yeer was now thirty days old, and had seen far more than when he had started the journey. He just hoped, for his own sake, that what he had seen was enough to help him through the events of the day.

It was time for the Great Hunt to begin.

Yeer easily hopped out of the side of the seed-pod, landing squarely on his two feet. Flewow cautiously clambered down one of the legs, and the two yellows walked alongside one another.

"I'd wake up Lear, but, uh…you know," He said shortly. Flewow nodded, not really paying attention. Instead, he was watching the already awake and moving greens, who were sprinting short relays and practicing their feint attacks, dodges, and leaps under the watchful eye of their respectful Alphas. Considering what events were going to take place, though, neither of the yellows was surprised.

Even as they walked, the sun was barely rising over the horizon. The cliffs that had seemed so far away days ago now loomed overhead, towering a full ten feet above the rest of the landscape. Though one could ascend up to the top of the cliffs by the sloping hill rising up to them, the hill was a pretty steep incline. A three foot wide gorge separated the two different parts of land—once the prey made it into the canyon, they were considered to be in essentially a "safe-zone" and were allowed to migrate in peace.

Yeer and Flewow just watched, and waited.

It was going to be a hard day.

---

It was later that day that the level of tension was at a level that it had not reached in Yeer's lifetime. The yellows stood around their seed-pod, talking quietly and trying to prepare for the task ahead. The greens had stopped practicing their hunting skills, and were now eagerly watching the horizon.

Flewow was walking around near the yellow seed-pod, deep in thought. He was going over every strategy he had come up with, analyzing strengths and flaws—the latter of which he considered to be found too often.

His attention then turned to the representative, who was standing in from of a group of thirty or so yellows. Most of them were buds. He approached the representative slowly, trying (successfully) to pick up what Lead's representative was saying.

"The run will, most likely, be fast paced, so there will be a need for you to work as hard as you can. We have to keep up with the front runners in the procession, so you cannot falter while carrying the seed-pod."

"Erm…pardon me…" Flewow politely waited until the representative had finished a sentence before butting in. The representative whirled around, glaring at the scholar.

"May I _help_ you?" He asked quietly.

"Well…I was just wondering what you were giving out as an objective—"

"These pikmin will carry our seed-pod beside our soldiers, in case we need any sort of immediate necessity for…_evacuation_, or something of the sort." He spoke bluntly and sharply, and Flewow quickly got the message that he was not wanted.

"The greens do not maneuver their seed-pods in such a fashion—" Flewow began.

"Do as you wish with your own followers, scholar," Lead's representative hissed, "But I do not care for _green _protocol. I am tired of seeing them boss our people around, and I do not give a damn about any of their traditions at this point…or any point, for that matter. Now, I suggest you ready your, eh, _strike team_." There were some snickers from the nearby pikmin; many of them were present when Flewow had attempted to mauever a group of yellows against a single breadbug.

Flewow just stood there, staring at the irritated representative who had just insulted him. "…My apologies," He said slowly, before turning and walking off.

_He is not making this any easier,_ Flewow thought to himself bitterly. For the moment, though, it did not seem as if Lead's representative was going to do anything _too _rash."

Flewow looked up and looked straight into the face of the first green Alpha he had met. He almost leapt into the air from shock; _How do they do that!?_ "O-Oh! He-hello!" He stammered out shakily.

The green nodded as if it was exactly what he had been expecting. "Tell me, yellow packmaster, why do these other yellow pikmin listen to you?"

_Packmaster? _"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"You have a leaf on your head, do you not?" The Alpha asked. The recorder nodded in response. "Yet, some of your comrades have buds, but they listen to you and the other two leaf pikmin. Why is this?"

Flewow stil couldn't get over seeing the green's mouth move as he talked; it was weird. "Well, I suppose that might have to do with the fact that we are more…" He looked for the right word. "_Educated _about our mission."

"Educated?" The Alpha asked. "So, what you are saying is that these yellows follow you not because of your prowess in combat, but because of your…knowledge?"

Flewow paused, wondering what the green pikmin was thinking. He then shortly said, "Yes. That is what I mean."

After that, the Alpha's tone completely changed. "I have spoken to the other Alpha about your inclusion. For now, you have nothing to fear from the green pikmin."

"Thank you."

"The time of the Great Hunt is almost upon us. You should prepare your hunters." The Alpha glanced over at Yeer, Lear, and a collection of nearby yellows. He strode off, but stopped when Flewow said something.

"Erm…Good luck." He almost asked. The green Alpha did not turn to face him.

"Good luck to you too, yellow. You're going to need it." He then strode of, leaving Flewow to stand there.

…_Flewow, you idiot! _Flewow thought. _You should have said, 'happy hunting'!_

It was at about the same time he thought of this pun that a call rose up from most of the greens. They were frantically motioning to the horizon, which was now filled with the shapes of approaching beasts. The entire area descended into uproar as the greens began howling with anticipation and the yellows began yelling to one another about what was happening.

Flewow watched in a sort of stupor as the greens shouted with what could only be described as bloodlust. He saw the Alphas run to the feet of their seed-pods.

"Warriors of Geer!" He heard the one he had just talked with shout. It was strange to think that the pikmin who was now assembling his warriors was the same pikmin that had hled the lives of an entire seed-pod at balance a few days ago. Something seemed to have taken over inside the greens. The other greens from the seed-pod crowded before him, baying and howling.

"Warriors of Gread!" The Alpha with the crooked stem shouted, and his own best hunters ran to him. Flewow decided that it was time for the yellows to show that they were here, too.

"Yellow pikmin!" He shouted out, and the yellows halfheartedly jogged over to him. The daunting impossibility of their task, combined by what they were seeing in the greens, seemed to have lowered their morale. Yeer, Flewow, and Lear exchanged nervous glances.

Flewow could hear the Alphas giving their warriors a sort of pep talk in the back of his head. "Alright, yellows," Flewow spoke up to the many leaf and bud pikmin standing before him. "We all know what we're here to do. I am confident that, if we keep a level head and a ready set of reflexes, we can prevail in this task." He eyed the thirty some pikmin near Lead's representative, who were watching him disdainfully. "Let's work together and stick together through this task, and we'll do great!" The scholar could hear the strain in his own voice.

All the yellows were distracted as each green under one Alpha's pack simultaneously roared and charged, with all speed, towards the approaching beasts. The other pack followed suit, hollering as their feet pattered over the ground.

Lear was the one to start the war cry. He yelled loudly, and the rest of the yellows took up the call. Flewow was surprised to see Lear dash past him, charging forwards with all speed gone, no cares in the world. "C'mon, everybody! Let's show them their competition!"

Yeer charged after his friend, and the rest of the yellows followed while shouting as loudly as they could. Flewow took up the bellow as well, surprising himself. _What am I, some sort of hooligan?!_Nevertheless, his voice did not diminish.

The yellows charged, right behind the greens. However, the greens were mostly flower pikmin, so the yellows slowly began to trail behind. Not a single pikmin had stopped shouting yet. Flewow began to doubt that he ever _would_ stop.

As they got closer and closer, they could really see the creatures. The beasts were enormous; the smaller breadbugs were dwarfed by their massive, giant counterparts. Already, Flewow could see dwarf bulbears and some of the long-legged dwarf bulborbs they had seen earlier running through the breadbug masses, striking and feinting at potential targets. On the sides of the procession were the massive, thorn-toothed bulbaxes, looking ready to strike at any moment. Dweevils lined the sidelines, too, looking for corpses to scavenge. Large, four legged blowhogs and decorated cannon beetles accompanied the breadbugs in the inner line, shorting and huffing at any predator that got too close. Flint Beetles scurried this way and that, trying to avoid being seen by predators.

The first green pack simultaneously jumped at a small breadbug that had gotten too close to the edge of the herd. They sunk their teeth in and the beast lowed in pain. The second group targeted a juvenile blowhog, which did not fire any flames at them; the area was too cramped for projectiles of any sort. They leapt at the blowhog, quickly toppling it on its side. The yellows charged in, too, heading for a flint beetle that tried to scurry deeper into the mass of other animals.

The larger creatures pressed on, undaunted by the death surrounding them. Greens and yellows ran beneath their feet and zipped all around, yelling to one another hurriedly. Flewow was, to say the least, swept up in it all; all of what he had said about "sticking together" was completely forgotten; most of the yellows had already charged into the center of the prey-convoy.

As Flewow watched, one of the thorn-toothed bulbaxes made its move; suddenly, it charged into the line, swiping at a medium-sized breadbug. The breadbug lowed in pain as the sharp teeth sunk into its hide, and it was lifted off of the ground in the monster's massive mouth. The beast shook itself rapidly while still holding the creature, killing it. It then proceeded off to find a place to its capture. A large bulbear quickly took up a space in the line that had disappeared.

Flewow watched as a pair of the long legged bulborbs leapt onto the side of a blowhog, ripping its skin. The beast attempted to shake them off, but their talon like claws kept them clamped in as they bit at the blowhog. It fell on its side, and ten dweevils, bright red in color, ran up to claim the prize. To Flewow's surprise, the talon- bulborbs backed off. And let the dweevils carry off the carcass of their kill. Meanwhile, Flewow observed another talon-bulborb leap at the side of a diant breadbug. Anticipating the attack, the breadbug swung its massive body towards the lunging predator, hitting it squarely. The beast was sent flying backwards, lying on the ground with a heavy thud. A group of dweevils immediately surrounded the injured bulborb, claiming it as their own when it died.

Flewow shook himself from the chaos of the hunt, and came back to his senses. He was supposed to be fighting! Where had the yellows gone?

Throwing caution to the winds, he ran into the heat of the fray, quickly spotting ten yellows trying to bring down a blowhog. He yelled out to them, but it was to no avail; they did not hear him. They seemed to focused on their task to concentrate on anything else in the world, and the blowhog quickly fell to the ground.

"Quickly, pick it up!" He yelled, and they did seem to hear him this time. Creatures bustled past all around Flewow, and he narrowly dodged a massive foot. The yellows, with Flewow helping, hefted up the carcass and moved it out of the carnage to the sidelines.

As soon as they made it out into the open, away from the stamping feet and roars of battle, a dweevil approached. "Oh no you don't!" Flewow hollered, jumping up and trying to get in the dweevl's way. The dweevil glanced at him incredulously before walking right over him and towards the carcass. It scooped it up, right out of the pikmins' hands. They charged after it, but quickly realized it was futile; their catch had been stolen. Flewow glanced over to see that Lear and Yeer were chasing after a dweevil that had stolen the corpse of a flint beetle. He ran up to an out-of-breath Yeer, and yelled, "We will have to come back for the carcasses later! These dweevils will just keep stealing them!"

Yeer looked up, and said, "We will just have to keep getting corpses until al of the dweevils get their fill, and then we can really start hunting. The greens are just leaving the bodies where they are, for now."

"We will follow their example, I suppose," Flewow said, already feeling tired. "Back into the convoy we go, then?"

The yellows charged back in, searching for a target running through the footsteps. What they found, however, was not what they were looking for.

The prone body of a yellow was lying on the ground, among the dirt and footprints. Flewow and Yeer ran up to him, but Yeer quickly knew of the yellow's fate. "He's dead," The leaf pikmin stated sadly. Flewow was quiet; he had not expected loss of life, but if there was death so soon… "We can't get his body out of here—a dweevil will just take it. We have to keep going."

Flewow nodded, discouraged, but the two kept running through the fray, seeing dwarf bulbears rip apart a breadbug, greens slaughter two more breadbugs, and a still-alive flint beetle being carried off by a massive thorn-toothed bulbax. They finally spotted a group of yellows chasing after a flint beetle, and hurriedly gave pursuit.

Lear, meanwhile, was finding the experience a perfect mix of terrifying and exhilarating. He charged at a bulborb and bounced off its hide, only to watch as it was killed by a bulbear seconds later. He got up and looked around for a new target, spokking a blowhog farther ahead. He charged and leapt onto its leg, pummeling it with as much strength as he had.

He must have hit a weak point; the beast fell forwards, stumbling, and crashed into the ground. A group of nearby yellows piled onto it, pulverizing it with everything they had. "Okay, we're good," Lear remarked as the animal died. "Find another one, go, go, go!" The band of yellows charged into the fray again, searching for a new adversary.

"There's one! Surround it!"

"Somebody get a bud pikmin over here!"

"Look, that breadbug's getting away! Oh, wait, a bulbax got it."

"See if you can push it over."

"Fall back to the front of the convoy!"

"Naw, we've got to stay here and finish this guy off—another flint beetle down!"

"WATCH OUT!"

A giant breadbug toppled over, being smashed into by a thorn-toothed bulbax. The breadbug crushed two bulborbs and a flint beetle as it fell. The pikmin nearby were fast enough to get out of the way. The area suddenly becam less crowded, and a blowhog decided it was time to attack. It blasted out a stream of fire that incinerated a yellow-colored dweevil that was approaching a bulborb's carcass. The other predators, including pikmin, shamelessly fled from the angered beast.

As time progressed, more and more of the scavengers left with food. Soon, it was mostly only pikmin and predatory monsters left. The convoy was not leaving a line of corpses behind it—since they were all taken by straggling scavengers—but the prey did seem to be shrinking in number. Still, that did not mean that there were few left; more than a hundred breadbugs still progressed.

Yeer weakly pulled himself off of the ground. He had just been thrown through the air by a bucking breadbug, and his back throbbed with pain. He watched through blurred vision as a decorated cannon beetle was attached by a swarm of greens, but he then collapsed again from the pain.

A dweevil saw the leaf yellow fall, and moved towards the body. It approached closer and closer, seeing no signs of movement. Suddenly, however, the body was hefted up by something else.

Lear hefted his friend over his shoulder, eying the dweevil suspiciously. "You owe me one…again," He said to the wounded Yeer.

"Th…thanks," Yeer replied. "Put me down."

"No, I'm getting you outta here. You can't fight." Lear said, and Yeer waved his arm in protest.

"Let me stand, please." Lear set his friend down carefully as Flewow came over.

"We're not doing well, I'm afraid," The recorder said. "Sunset is not too far away, and the animals are nearing the canyon! We've only accumulated about three corpses, while the green packs have almost twenty each!"

"Do you honestly think we still have a chance?" Lear asked, wondering about the scholar's thoughts.

"Maybe," Flewow said shortly.

"Maybe!?" Lear asked. "We've lost lives doing this, Flewow! We've got to finish this, or we're ALL going to die! Can't you think of something!?"

"You…you…" Flewow said quietly. "You said my name right…"

Deep in the foundries of Flewow's brain, something clicked. "I have an idea!" He shouted, garnering the attention of many nearby animals. "…But I'm going to need all the help I can get. I'll make sure Yeer is safe, you go gather up all the yellows you can find!" Flewow hefted up Yeer's body, and Lear wordlessly ran off. "I sure hope this works…"

---

Geer pulled his teeth out of the head of a giant breadbug; it was now dead. He had killed it almost single-handedly to show the other greens he was still a ready fighter.

He leapt off of the beast and landed on the back of a decorated cannon beetle, clinging to it as it bucked and swayed. He used his teeth to pierce its exoskeleton, and then began to hit it with his flower. Other greens nearby joined him, and the monster collapsed and fell in a matter of seconds.

Geer grinned, baring his bloodied fangs, but the grin disappeared when he looked up. "What…are they doing?" He roared, gathering the attention of all the nearby greens.

The entrance to the canyon was filled with yellows; they were blocking the path. He roared in anger, seeing the yellows attempting to stop a sacred part of the Great Hunt. He stopped, however, as he realized that there were not enough yellows to stop a herd—there might have been twenty five, maybe a few more. The herd would not stop and try to avoid them; it would trample them. Bloodlust controlled the Alpha; he himself was buried inside a body controlled by instinct.

Geer grinned; they would pay for betraying him.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the procession, a group of mostly bud yellows were holding up the seed-pod of their kind. Lear ran up to them and started yelling to them. "What do you want?" One of them said rashly.

"You've got to help us!" Lear shouted back. "All of the yellows need to go and stand in front of the canyon, now!"

"Why should we do that?" The bud responded angrily.

"Please, just listen to me!" Lear shouted.

"Sorry, under orders," The bud pikmin said, waving as if trying to get Lear to go away.

"Where is the one that gave you these orders?" Lear shouted furiously.

There was a cold silence. The bud replied, "Lead's representative went to see if he could talk any of _you _into some sense. We haven't seen him since."

"Then please, _please, _just listen—"

"We were given orders to stay here and carry the seed-pod. We don't care about yo—"

"Don't you understand!?" Lear roared, making the bud take two steps back. "This is our last chance to live! Some of us have _died _to try and help you survive, and all you do is stand here like a damned fool!" Lear glared up at the bud, who now did not look in the position of power. "If you don't help us, we're going to die, which means that the yellows back home are going to die. Now," He said, calming his voice. "Are you going to help the rest of us, or not?"

At the same time as this was happening, Flewow stood at the center of the line of yellows attempting to block the canyon. There were not enough of them; there were gaping holes in the line. Flewow was supporting Yeer, and the scholar had his arm flung over the wounded pikmin's shoulder.

Flewow was staring down the approaching mass of beasts. He was hoping that they would not go down the canyon behind him, so that he could truly put his plan into action. He knew the odds were against him; instinct was not easily changed. It was all up to Lear, now.

The greens seemed to have broken off from their adversaries. Were they watching? He couldn't tell. He knew that they were probably viewing his actions as a betrayal, but if his plan worked…

The beasts were almost upon him, but he heard something to his left. "Hey, over here!" Flewow turned to see Lear at the head of about thirty-five yellows, charging towards him. The yellow seed-pod was lying, alone, in the distance.

"I hope this helps," Lear said. Flewow looked at him with gratitude. "Okay, everyone, fill any gaps in the line! C'mon, we don't have much time!"

The bud yellows spread through the yellows, reinforcing the blocking maneuver. They stood there, as one, yelling out and calling to one another.

Flewow heard none of it; instead, he was staring at the giant breadbug that had moved to the head of the procession.

It stopped, about three feet away. As soon as it stopped, the rest of the line seemed to stop with it. Silence fell upon the yellows, and the greens watching from a distance. For a second, nothing moved. Then, with every eye upon him, Flewow took one step forward.

As he did so, the giant breadbug came to a decision. Losing all of the uncaring physique it had moments earlier, it hurriedly moved to the sloping side of the canyon, heading up. The procession slowly and blindly followed its leader, much to the horror of the Greens—their prey was going up the sloping side of the canyon.

Flewow's eyes said it all; he was overjoyed. The yellows stayed in place as more and more beasts headed up the steep incline. Twenty…twenty five…twenty eight…thirty. It was enough.

"Okay, everybody, move!" Flewow called. Follow those beasts up the hill!"

The line collapsed as the yellows chased after the beasts, which picked up their pace to match. The rest of the convoy swept through the canyon, and to safety.

The greens were outraged. With a roar of fury. Geer charged towards the yellows. The rest of the greens followed him.

Flewow saw the greens approaching as he chased the stragglers up the incline, keeping just the perfect distance behind them. Slowly but surely, they reached the top of the cliffs, but the greens were fast approaching. "Quickly now, try and surround the group! Move, move move!" The yellows scrambled, and the desperation seem to be shared between all of them as they moved to trap the breadbugs between the cliffs and the yellow formation.

After a few seconds, the breadbugs halted. Once again, they were blocked—surrounded by a semicircle of yellows. They turned to face the pikmin, gathering together for safety.

Geer was the first green to ascend to the top of the cliffs. He looked up and saw what the yellows were doing—it had to be stopped. He ran forward, closing on what he considered to be their packmaster.

"Alright, everyone take a step forward," Flewow yelled. He saw the green Alpha out of the corner of his mind, getting closer and closer as every yellow took a single step forward. Geer was inches away from lunging range as, in response, every breadbug took a step back.

One of the larger ones stepped to close to the cliff; its foot wobbled on the side, and it began to fall over backward. IT let out a lowing cry of alarm as it stumbled off of the cliff to a ten-foot drop. It thudded to the ground below, inside the canyon—dead.

Geer stopped. He and Flewow exchanged a glance as everything became abundantly clear to the Alpha.

He stopped where he stood as the yellow group took another step forward, and three more bulborbs fell to their fate, the rest were growing weary, and four more fell before the next step was taken.

Five steps later, thirty breadbugs lay in the canyon, dead. A complete silence once again filled the plains.

Every yellow pikmin and every green pikmin watched as Flewow and Geer approached each other. They wordlessly stared at each other, and for the second time in a few minutes, nothing moved except for the sun. It was setting over the horizon, but none of the pikmin—for once—paid it no mind.

"And so it ends," the Alpha said, finally. "The day is yours."

"The day," Flewow said, "Is _ours_."

**As we near the end of the Great Plains arc, everything will settle. And, hopefully, so will some reviews.  
Also, I feel the need to point out this chapter ends on the 116****th**** page of the story. What comes after 116? 117! What's that? MASTER CHIEF's number, fool!  
Also, to any Homestar Runner fans: This week's weekly fanstuff contains a pikmin reference. Its pretty obvious—see if you can find it!**

**"Admiral Ackbar, we've spotted something!"  
"What is it?"  
"Its some sort of lavender button that people use to leave reviews! What should we do?!"  
"Leave one, we can't repel constructive criticism of that magnitude!"  
"Oh, and Admiral?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Can I eat you?"  
"…"**


	26. Canyons

**Okay, let me just start of with apologies. My B, guys. My B. If you saw the message on my profile out why I couldn't update for so long. Acting stuff, Midterms, Halo 3, Brawl mania (SO HOW 'BOUT THAT OLIMAR!?), and Mass Effect consumed my life. **

**This chapter is essentially five pages long—not very long at all—and is a pause between action sequences. I hope you enjoy it; its been a while. Any reading I missed I will make sure to catch up on any reading I've missed.**

**If you've forgotten any characters and can't remember who they are, just send me a P.M. Don't worry about looking through old chapters to find stuff; I realize that it has been a very long time, and that we are prone to forget things.**

"Wait, so, can we go over this again?" The leaf pikmin asked with a confused expression.

Lear sighed. "Okay, here's how it goes. You refer to me as 'the Ultimator' at all times. It this really that challenging?"

"But, why?"

"Well, you just do." As they spoke, Yeer approached wearily.

"Lear, for the last time, leave the new pikmin alone." Yeer said. He turned to the other pikmin and said, "His name's Lear. Don't call him anything else. What did he tell you to call him?" The leaf pikmin asked.

"The Ultimator."

"Argh, _Lear_!" Yeer turned to face his friend with a look of severe annoyance.

"Sorry," Lear replied.

It was one day after the Great Hunt, and Yeer had spent the majority of the day trying to keep Lear from influencing the minds of the newborn yellow pikmin. There were quite a few, since the greens had refused to take all of the prosperous food that the yellows had gotten from their maneuver during the Great Hunt. Even though he was promised all of the food the yellows got, Geer had demanded that the yellows keep some for themselves—as tradition demanded itself. Even when the yellows took a considerable sum, Geer gave the rest to Gread's pack as a symbol of cooperation. They were going to need the trust system greatly—Gread had promised to safeguard Geer's land in the Alpha's absence.

Flewow approached his two arguing comrades. "Hey, you two," He said shortly—another irregular occurrence.

"Hey, Fleewoah." Flewow sighed; after the Great Hunt, Lear had apparently gone back to forgetting the scholar's name, which Flewow had a feeling he was doing purposefully.

"The Alphas have summoned us to a meeting in a few moments. It will take place at the foot of the canyon, and they want us to make haste," Flewow said. He was almost becoming a sentry for the yellows because of the unsteady friendship growing between him and Geer. Both respected each other—at least, Flewow _hoped _Geer respected him—but it felt strange to talk to someone who had been about to kill you one day earlier.

"Well, I guess we'll know what's going on this time, huh?" Lear said. "Even if there's only…three yellows to be there now."

The news had spread quickly through the yellow population; Lead's representative was dead, trampled by a giant breadbug during the Great Hunt. Flewow, Yeer, and Lear all knew that he had been trying to undermine the entire mission, how he had personally attempted to make every task harder, but none of them thought he deserved to die. They had not been able to procure his body, either; dweevils had taken it. Most of his closest followers had spent the beginning of the day mourning him.

"Well, we should be off." Flewow said, and the trio headed for the canyon's entrance. When they got there, they were not very surprised to find the two Alpha's waiting for them—what they were not expecting, however, was that the Alphas were both sitting on the top of breadbug carcasses. Flewow noted that another was lying nearby, and the three yellows clambered on top of it, all immediately agreeing that it felt odd to be sitting on a dead animal. Geer nodded to Flewow in greeting, and then began the meeting.

"So, yellow Alpha, tell us your plan of action." Geer said shortly.

Flewow coughed, and then began. "We have been sent on this mission in attempt to gather help from each of the pikmin colors. We also need to get information on our enemies, and we can continue our mission best by heading towards blue pikmin territory.

"Blues?" Geer said.

"Yeah, why blues?" Lear spoke up.

"The blue pikmin know the largest amount of information of any pikmin color. I'm not exactly sure how they know all of this information, since they tend to stay in their territory, but the fact of the matter is that they do. Some say that the blues were the first pikmin to come into existence, though this is merely lore. If anyone would have information on these 'barren insects', it would be them. They are also the closest to us." Flewow explained.

"In what direction?" Yeer asked; Flewow had already told them they were going to blue territory next, but he had not specified in which direction they were headed.

"Just down the canyon, actually." Flewow said, pointing down the canyon's long expanse. "One of the entrances to their territory is just down it, a day's walk or so. They will allow us into their territory, since we are their allies."

"We have not dealt with the blues since the first time we met them." The Alpha with the crooked stem spoke up. "But they would not resent the presence of a green."

"I have no objection to this plan of action," Geer said. "I am ready to leave when ready."

"And…" Yeer said awkwardly, looking at the other Alpha. He still did not know exactly what he was going to do.

"I will stay here." Gread said shortly. "My pack will safeguard the territory controlled by Geer until his return. And may it be soon." He said, turning to Geer.

"And may you rule for many seasons, Gread." Geer bowed his head, and Gread returned the gesture.

"So, I suppose we should begin, then?" Yeer said to Geer.

"No. This meeting is not yet adjourned." The Alpha said. "We have an offering for you yellows."

"Huh?" Lear said stupidly. Yeer looked away, embarrassed.

"Come," was all Geer said. The three yellows jumped off of the breadbug carcass and walked up to him. "Behind this breadbug is what we give you."

The three looked around the corner, and were dumbstruck. Lying there was a glob of bright nectar. "I do not know much of your ways, but it is the highest honor among your people to bear a flower, is it not?" Flewow looked up, and nodded. "You have proven yourselves to us. This does not mean that your _kind _has, but we are allies. Please, drink." He said.

Yeer, Lear, and Flewow exchanged glances. "Drink up!" Lear said, and Gread chuckled a bit at this.

---

The yellow seed-pod was just in front of the green one as they were carried through the canyon. The yellow pikmin and the green pikmin huddled around their own seed-pods, and it was easily to see that the two colors were trying to avoid one another. Flewow had been expecting this; yellows and greens had hated one another for a long time, and a pile of breadbugs was not going to fix that problem.

Still, it was nice to have the help.

They just kept walking and walking and walking. And not even the scenery changed—not that anyone was expecting it to. Eventually, however, the yellows had to stop because of something that stood in their way: A fork in the road.

Flewow, much like the other yellows, had not been expecting this. He was at a complete loss, and was just staring at the left path and the right path in turn. Lear and Yeer walked up to him quickly, standing to his right. "D you know which way?" Yeer asked.

"Unfortunately, no, I do not." Flewow sighed; he was at a complete loss for which way the group should proceed. The Alpha quickly strode up to him, watching him for a decision patiently. "I know that the blues would lie a little in that direction," He said, pointing down the right side, "But that might be a dead end."

"Look at those footsteps," Yeer said. He had moved a little away from the others and had sighted the imprint of a breadbug's foot in the ground. "They face the left path."

The Alpha spoke up next. "Their instinct is rarely incorrect. That direction may be the way we seek."

Flewow nodded. "We will take the path on the left, I suppose." He marched forward, and the yellow seed-pod was toted in his wake. Geer hurriedly ran back to his own people, who were bringing up the rear.

They continued down the path for quite some time, unaware that they were being watched.

"What in the name of…Greens and yellows? What are they doing here?"

"This is odd…Head back and report to the others. I'll stay here and keep an eye on them."

"Are you sure? What if they see you?"

"I can guarantee you that they won't catch sight of me. After all, why would they be looking at the sides of the canyon?"

"I suppose you are right. See you back there soon, okay?"

"You know it."

---

The yellows and greens had been continuing for almost a day now, and the sun would soon set. Much to Flewow's concern, however, the canyon seemed to be getting taller and taller. It must have been at least fifteen feet high now. He could see little cliffs on the sides of the canyon, jutting edges and the like—and he had spotted a dweevil up on the side earlier. Other than that, though, the region seemed deserted.

Lear, on the other hand, was simply getting tired of the walking. He wouldn't have cared if the canyon was an inch high, or fifty feet up—the point was that he just wanted to take a break.

Up ahead, the canyon looked as if it was going to take an almost ninety degree turn…strange. Lear didn't care much, but there was something weird about these canyons. They were wayward, and followed no specific path. Unlike Flewow, however, Lear didn't wonder about what had made them.

As they approached the turn, sounds of a scuffle became pronounced. Lear and Flewow instantly froze in their tracks, and Geer was quickly at their side. It was Yeer, however, who took a look around the sharp turn in the canyon.

A group of small beings were lying on the ground of the canyon, edging away from the form of a dwarf orange bulborb. The bulborb slowly advanced, as if toying with its prey—which was just obscured from Yeer's vision by the bulborb's hulking form. Whatever it was, though, he could hear it—them—calling for help.

Yeer yelled as both a summoning to his allies and a way to distract the beast in front of him. It turned to face him, mouth open with a strand of saliva hanging out of the side. Yeer charged forward at it, confident with his new strength as a flower pikmin, and it charged towards him, momentarily forgetting about its other target.

It was as he ran that Yeer noticed a blur of movement on the side of the canyon, and then something impacted with the dwarf orange bulborb's back, causing it to yell in pain as it collapsed forward.

Yeer could only stop in shock as the bipedal figure that had attacked the bulborb, along with the ones that were almost eaten by it, stood to their full height.

**CLIFFHANGER…What are they, I wonder? Speculations welcome! It may have been a while, but I hope you haven't forgotten my jubilee of review analogies. **

**I'm off to read the newest chapter of A Life of War. Catch you 'round.**


	27. An Oddity

**Three and a half pages. SUPER SHORT. But, it does hold some important plot elements, as well as, perhaps…Well, you'll just have to see.**

---

These were not like anything that Yeer had ever seen before.

They were clearly pikmin, but they were not yellows or greens, and they certainly weren't blues, either. The two new pikmin stood and looked over at Yeer with similar expressions to the one that he gave them. Behind Yeer, the four other leaders hurried to his side, followed by the rest of the yellows and greens.

All eyes were on the new pikmin; they were slimmer than the yellows and the greens, but were a little bit taller—if only a little bit. They were wiry, with arms and legs that were lankier and thinner than those of a yellow. Their key features, however, were not their arms or legs; instead, they had odd patches on either side of their heads, with little spikes that were shorter than those of a purple pikmin's distinguishing hair, but more frequent as well (of course, of all the pikmin assembled, Flewow was the only one who really knew what a purple pikmin actually was). Flewow had, however, never seen these pikmin before. The sideburned figures had a shade of skin what was…Pink. On their stems, instead of leaves, flowers, or buds, were a multitude of bristling white tufts that looked (once again, as Flewow knew) like dandelion seeds.

"Wow," was all Lear said.

The pinks looked towards one another warily, before the lead one said, "Greetings." After this short remark, there was another long pause as both parties remained silent.

"Who are you?" the Alpha said in his sinister, hissing voice. Lear turned and saw that he was in a defensive stance, ready for combat if need be.

"We could be asking you the same question." The pink who had jumped from higher up on the canyon said. Geer made a noise that sounded like a dissatisfied cough. "What are you doing this deep into the canyon?"

Yeer and Lear instantly turned to Flewow, who they had come to know as the 'talker' of the group. "We are in search of help."

"Why are you with the greens?"

Flewow paused for a second, and then replied, "They have been kind enough to pledge themselves to our cause."

"Mind if I ask," The pink said bluntly, "What kind of cause this is?"

"It might be better to explain it to your leader…" Flewow said slowly, to wanting to come of as rude.

The pink's eyes glinted with amusement. "I don't think you can get up _there_," He said, pointing to the top of the canyon, "And he ain't coming down."

Flewow glanced to his compatriots quickly, and noted the expressions he saw. Lear looked amazed and rather confused, Geer looked angered, and Yeer actually returned the glance. It was clear what the yellow wanted to ask Flewow: _Was meeting these guys part of the plan?_

If he had been able to respond, Flewow would have done so with a firm negative.

"Yeah, if you can't tell me, don't even think about trying to get _our _help." The pink said.

"I don't plan on it," Geer hissed. "Let us go, yellows. These primitives aren't worth it." The pink in charge glared at Geer, and he glared back.

Flewow brought his hand up to his almost-nonexistent chin in thought. Pinks…there had been rumors of them in the yellow archives, but never any true facts…It would be beneficial to have them join the alliance. "Are you sure that there would be no way of us getting to your leader?" He piped up. Packmaster Geer looked at him in confusion.

"No way, no how," The pink said. "Non-pinks aren't exactly…capable enough." On this, he looked directly at Geer, who bared his fangs and growled in growing rage.

"We should continue, yellows." He said, and strode forward. The greens followed, toting their seed-pod with them. Geer strode past the pinks, who moved out of the way nervously. The pink who had been talking was the only exception; he looked down at the slightly hunched over green as he strode past, and Geer glanced up at him with a hiss. The pink returned the glance soundlessly, expressing contempt for the green.

Flewow would have liked to know more about the pinks, but he was not willing to risk his allegiance with the greens over the matter. He motioned to the yellows, and they proceeded forwards with their seed-pod in tow. He exchanged a glance with the pink in charge, who looked down at him with a questioning expression. Flewow nodded his head slightly and continued on, only to have one of the other pinks run up to him seconds later.

"Hey there!" The pink said cheerfully. Flewow looked at him with surprise; the pink was about his height, meaning it was not very old for a pink. "What your name?"

"Er…" _Did I really just say 'er'? _"…Flewow."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Lek!" The pink strode alongside him casually, as if they were old friends. Lear gave the pink a glance that stated a frank 'what the!?' While Yeer's glance was more curious. Geer looked back and frowned at the pink pikmin, who seemed completely unaware of all the strange looks he was receiving. "So, what is this mission you were—"

"Where do you think you're going, Lek?" The head pink said, turning and gazing at the friendly Lek. Lek turned around to face him, but backtracked to keep alongside Flewow, who was utterly clueless to what was happening.

"Well, if it's alright, I think I might join these guys." Flewow's eyes, along with those of all the pikmin in earshot, widened. _What!? _Yeer thought to himself, watching Lek and Flewow with a good degree of shock. _He's just going to leave his own kind!?_

The head pink looked at Lek for a few seconds, and then said shortly, "Alright, then. Go." He turned to the other pinks nearby and said, "The rest of you, come on, let's get back to the top." He began to clamber up the side of the canyon, closely followed by the other pinks, all of whom gazed after Lek and the others. None of them said anything, however, and quietly followed the first one.

"So, anyway—" Lek continued, much to the utter bafflement of Flewow, before being cut off by a very annoyed Geer.

"Did we ever discuss letting a _pink _into our company?" He hissed angrily at Flewow.

"Sorry about that standoff back there," Lek said amicably to the green, who glared at him as if he should not be talking. Flewow could almost sense how close the pink was to being injured. "Puld tends to be kind of obnoxious. I hope you didn't assume all pinks are like that," He chuckled at the end of his statement. Geer's expression did not change.

"Alpha, it is only one pink," Flewow said, attempting to calm the green down. "I will make sure he doesn't get into trouble." He improvised quickly, not wanting to have blood on his hands.

The Alpha let out a second angry cough. "Fine. Just keep _it_," He said, glancing at Lek with disgust, "Out of my way." With that, he turned and stormed off towards the rest of the greens.

Flewow turned to the pink, who seemed completely unfazed. "Seriously this time, mind telling me where we're going?"

Puld was almost a quarter of the way up the canyon side when he turned to look at the retreating convoy. He sighed, and remarked to a nearby pink, "He always was a strange one, that Lek."

_**LEK HAS JOINED THE PARTY!!**_

**So, on that note, I BEAT MASS EFFECT! WOOOO! **

**Well, technically, I only did about fifty percent of the sidequests, so I guess I'm not really done at all. In one of the upcoming chapters, Mass Effect may get a subtle referencing…If anyone points it out, I'll be surprised. Or, perhaps not, I don't know if you people have played the game. **

**Expect another excruciatingly short chapter sometime this weekend, followed by another long-ish one towards early next week. 'Till then…you know what to do.**


	28. Canyon's End

…**Okay, so I was wrong. My bad. But here's a new chapter, so, uh, yeah.**

**This is another transition chapter, with a lot of stuff on Lek. I hope you enjoy.**

The next few days were strange for Flewow, Lear, and Yeer. The pink pikmin—Lek—seemed to be involved with at least one of them in conversation throughout the entire day, and it had taken them some time just to inform him of their mission and whatnot. Much to their surprise, Lek seemed to accept it without any degree of surprise or fear; he did not seem to respond particularly emotionally, for that matter, replying to most of the tale with 'huh,' as if to say 'interesting'.

Lek seemed to have no problem with staying inside the yellow seed-pod when it took off, which came as a surprise to all of the yellows. He also had no idea, at first, what seed-pods actually _were_ (exclaiming "Goodness, they can fly!?" as one took off), which brought up a good deal of explanation. He did not attach himself to the side of the seed-pod's interior, so as to gain energy, commenting that 'that would simply be stealing'. This was, in a way, even more confusing, because it left the yellows clueless to how the pinks gained energy.

Geer stayed away from Lek, and since Lek was usually hanging out with the yellow leaders, it meant that Geer tended to stay away from them as well. Geer had, at one point, had a quick discussion with Yeer, but other than that he had had no interaction with yellows at all since Lek's integration.

The conversations concerning the pinks in general were viewed as awkward by the yellows and completely commonplace by Lek. Flewow, Lear, and Yeer did not want Lek to think they were prying (all they were trying to do, Flewow said, was 'expand the base of yellow knowledge'), but Lek did not seem to care one bit about any sort of personal questions.

"Do the pink pikmin have a seed-pod?" The conversation began on the second day after Lek had joined them.

Lek chuckled, and responded, "Oh, no. We simply sleep at the top of the canyon, where the predators can't get to us."

"If you don't have a seed-pod," Lear stated, "Then how do new pinks come into existence?"

"Rarely, let me tell you," Lek laughed again, and pointed to the top of his stem, which was very similar to a dandelion. "These little seeds occasionally detach from the stem and get carried across the canyon by the winds. Eventually they plant, and start growing into new pinks." There was a pause as Lear and Flewow (Yeer was helping to carry the seed-pod at the time) took in the information.

"You just mentioned some winds…" Flewow said, reprimanding himself mentally for having such poor conversational skills. This was supposed to be a conversation, not an interview.

"Oh, yes. Without them, we wouldn't be able to move around the canyon." He once again motioned to his stem, and said, "We're very good at catching updrafts, you see."

After the concept of moving with the wind had been dealt with, there was the daily exchange where the yellows discussed _their _home, and _their _ways, to the pink, who seemed quite interested by the whole matter.

At first, Yeer had been slightly worried about telling the pink so many things, commenting that the pinks could be more powerful than the yellows. "After all," He said while privately discussing the matter with Lear and Flewow, "One of those pinks didn't seem very friendly."

However, after they learned that the whole pink population was only twenty-seven strong, they stopped worrying. This did bring up the question that, if the pinks were only twenty seven in number, why would they let one of their own leave so simply?  
They continued through the canyon for almost two more days before they came to a stop. Yeer had the feeling that, for their entire time through the canyon, they were being watched. The pinks were probably monitoring their progress—and Lek, for that matter.

Yeer's conversation with Geer was shortlived. Geer strode up to him, most of the yellows respectfully—or fearfully—moving out of the green Alpha's way as he approached.

"Yellow leader," He said shortly. Yeer was at a quick loss for a response.

He eventually settled on, "Hello there, Packmaster Geer."

"Tell me, yellow," Geer said, turning to walk alongside Yeer, "How far do you plan to go in search of help?"

Yeer thought for a second, and then said, "Well, the Barren-monsters are very powerful. I guess we are going to attempt to gain all the help we can."

"From every tribe?" Geer asked.

"I suppose, if we have time to visit each one."

"You do realize, however, that some colors do not cooperate?" Geer asked again. Yeer had a feeling he was talking about the greens and some other groups, not other groups and other groups.

"Well, hopefully," Yeer said, pleading that he was picking the right response, "They will be able to work together."

Geer nodded, seeming (much to Yeer's relief, and slight surprise) satisfied with the response, and stalked back over to his own people. It became abundantly clear to Yeer at that point that actually getting that to happen—cooperation among all the people they recruited—was as necessary at the recruitment itself.

It was halfway through the second day that there was a stop; a change of pace—quite literally, in fact. One of the lead greens gave a grunt of surprise as he took another step forward, and ended up ankle-deep in water.

Virtually nothing, but nonetheless…

The entire convoy paused. Yeer hurried to go and meet up with the Alpha, closely followed by Flewow and Lear. Lek looked after them, but decided to stay behind.

"…Water," Was all the Alpha said, sounding dismayed to an extent that none of the yellows had ever heard before. The looked down the expanse of the canyon that they could see, and noted that the tiny level of water was constant.

"Well, that's bad," Lear said bluntly.

"We can't turn back," Yeer stated, "And I guess this means we're getting closer to blue territory.

"If it gets to knee height, we will have to find another route," Geer said shortly.

None of them—especially Geer—looked thrilled about trudging through water. Fact of the matter was, though, that it was going to have to happen sometime.

It was a tough slog. The greens (who had been, for some time, leading the procession) ended up closer to the yellows in the convoy because their speed was far more impeded by the water. Geer himself was about halfway through the caravan, just behind the green seed-pod and just in front of the yellow one.

Lek was similarly bothered by the water, and volunteered to help tote the yellow seed-pod due to a desire for something to hang on to—quite trivial, considering the water was only ankle high. Lear, who was closer to Lek than any of the other pikmin, joined him—a pretty impressive symbol for someone so determined to avoid work.

Much to the outrage of all the pikmin, however, they were forced to come to a stop when the canyon expanded outward in a sort of circle—and became a dead end.

---

**That's it for this short chapter. Please review.**

**SMASH TOMORROW…Except not really, for those of us on the East Coast…**


	29. Natural Barrier, Natural Guard

…It feels good to be posting again

…**It feels good to be posting again. I apologize for the long interlude; after the end of the Winter musical season, I foolishly decided to do both Theater and Sport (Lights Crew for Theater and Novice Rowing Crew for Sports), which was a harsh venture. My grade point average may have taken a bit of a dive, which is never a good thing…But nonetheless, the Musical had its last performance some time ago, and Rowing ended earlier today, so…here I am. **

**Updates should be more frequent from now on, meaning I won't do a summary of recent events in notes. But here, since its been a while, is such a summary:**

**In their quest, Geer the Green Packmaster, Flewow the Recorder, Lear the Slacker, and Yeer the I-Just-Want-a-Simple-Life guy have traveled far through the Canyonlands, even gaining a new member of the team (Lek the Pink Oddball), but—after trudging through a long distance of ankle-deep water—have met a dead end. Let us see what happens, shall we?**

--

The cul-de-sac dead end was almost six feet across in both directions—the water level had risen slightly, as well. On the right side of the open area was the source of the water—a steady trickle coming from the top of the canyon. It certainly was not a waterfall, but it did block the canyon wall behind from vision almost completely.

Geer gave a growl of rage. "Nothing!" He hissed, hands clenched. Lear, in frustration, kicked the wall of the canyon forcefully—and almost instantly regretted it, giving a grunt of pain. Flewow squinted at the other side of the canyon wall, as if attempting to contemplate a way around it, while Yeer looked down at his feet gloomily. Lek let out another trademark "huh."

Geer stormed over to Flewow and Yeer, and was about to say something, when Lek's voice piped up in the distance. "Hey, what's that?" He asked rather loudly, pointing to the other side of the rounded area.

As they looked a little more closely, the pikmin spotted a pair of odd looking, pikmin-height stalks rising from out of the ground. The top of each one was spherical, and seemed to be barely supported by the base.

"I don't know," Lear said, standing alongside the pink. He picked up a small pebble—ignoring the sickening feeling of water on the pores of his hand—and lobbed it a good distance at the two stalks.

It bounced off of the left one, and then all hell broke loose.

The ground seemed to explode, and water went flying into the air, fortunately not landing on any of the startled pikmin. A behemoth figure pulled itself out of the muck and roared loudly, almost knocking some of the closest pikmin off of their feet.

The figure quickly became clear; it was similar to a bulborb, but much, much larger. Its head was enormous, the largest maw that any of the assembled pikmin had ever seen—and saliva dripped from it. The stalks—its eyestalks, rose above the creature's wide head as it squinted at the pikmin. The back of its body was rock-like, most likely for camouflage, and its feet were centered directly below the beast. Its weak eyes were barely able to spot the pikmin, but it could most certainly detect their presence.

With another roar, it took a step towards the terrified pikmin mass, shaking the ground beneath them. Geer almost suicidally got into an attack position, as did several of the other greens, but everyone else let out yells of terror or backed up warily.

"Emperor Bulbax…" Flewow muttered under his breath. "The guard…Damn, I forgot…"

"Hey!" A voice called out over the uproar, garnering the attention of the assembled pikmin. "Over here!"

They turned and looked over towards the trickle of water. Two pikmin were standing beneath it, holding up leaves to prevent the water from falling completely. Uncovered behind the two pikmin—who were blues—was a wide tunnel. A secret exit from the deathtrap. "This way! Come in here!" One of the gilled and mouthed blues called out.

Yeer took command in a split second decision. "Hurry, bring the seed-pods this way! NOW!" He roared to the greens and yellows. "We can get out through there!"

Now began a desperate race. The yellows and greens, seed-pods in tow, made a dash towards the two blues. The leaves they were holding caused the water to slide to the side, meaning that they could run to the tunnel without being drenched with water. Some of the front running yellows and greens, Lek among them, dashed through. Yeer made it to them, and yelled to them over the shouts of terror and roars from the Bulbax.

"Who are you?" He called to the blues.

"Allies," One replied. "You will be safe in here."

"Hurry!" Yeer shouted, calling to the seed-pod carriers while waving his hand. They were going full speed, but the Bulbax was fast. It was almost upon them now, trying to cut them off from the exit.

Until it was distracted.

Geer, along with five other greens, charged at the beast with battle cries. It looked at them, surprised, and let out a deathly roar. They strafed around to its right flank, distracting it from the pikmin carrying the pod, but putting themselves in grave danger.

Lek and Lear dashed in right before the seed-pods did, panting with exhaustion as they sprinted into the uncovered tunnel. They turned to watch the last pikmin run in, then the seed-pods (which were a tight fit), and then looked up at Geer and his allies.

Seeing the last of the others get into the tunnel safely, Geer called out to his team. They split into two groups, three running around one side of the beast and three around the other. It opened its mouth and swung its gargantuan tongue at one of the groups, and almost got them; the trailing green literally had to jump over its tongue.

The group of greens were slightly slowed down by the muddy terrain underfoot, but they were going to beat the Bulbax back…or so it seemed.

The creature roared loudly, and the trailing green fell forwards from the force, falling flat on his face into the water. Geer turned around and yelled, but a single pikmin broke out and ran past him towards the green.

Lek's strides almost seemed to take him off of the ground completely, and he was at the green's side faster than the green Alpha himself. Lek hefted the green out of the muck, only to see him hacking and coughing, covered in mud and with pores half full with water. He slung the green over his shoulder and began to dash back, the Bulbax's tongue literally right behind him. Running alongside Geer, Lek looked back at the monster as it continued to chase them. He outpaced Geer, who trailed behind even when Lek was hefting another green.

"He's fast!" Lear exclaimed as he watched. Lek raced back under the leaves, a trickle almost hitting him as it made it past the leaves. One of the blues dropped his leaf and ran over to see to the waterlogged green, while the other one waited for Geer.

Geer dashed to the leaf with time to spare, but then suddenly paused. The creature began to gain on him as Geer looked to the passage onder the drizzle of water, then back at the Bulbax, then back at the passage. He looked as if he would rather fight the beast than risk ducking under the water.

"What are you waiting for!?" Lear yelled, as the behemoth got closer and closer to the green Alpha. "C'mon!"

Geer looked back at the Bulbax one more time before closing his eyes and dashing under the leaf, stopping when he got to the tunnel and giving a hiss of relief.

The second blue pulled his leaf out from the would-be waterfall, and the passage 'closed' again. There was a pause from the other side as the Bulbax stopped, and then gave a roar of rage. The blues, calm now, began walking down the tunnel. The waterlogged green, now okay and no longer covered in mud, shakily got to his feet as Lek supported him with one hand. Geer and Lek exchanged their first 'not unfriendly' glance; there was something thankful about Geer's gaze.

The party slowly began to move down the tunnel after the two blues, leaving the roars of the Bulbax behind.

--

The tunnel was, unfortunately, quite damp and quite dark. It was slowly rising, but there was as steady level of ankle-high water nonetheless. Every once and a while, a droplet of water would fall from the tunnel's curved ceiling, but the pikmin were lucky enough to avoid these drops, which echoed through the tunnel for a good distance. The darkness did not help; Yeer could barely see his outstretched hand.

Over the course of the passage, One of the blues (the one who had replied to his question of 'who are you?') moved to stand alongside him. The other lead the procession silently.

"Thank you," Yeer said to the blue, who was slightly shorter than Yeer himself.

"Do not thank us. We must apologize; the guard is far more belligerent than it used to be." The blue's mouth, not nearly as wide as those of the greens (and lacking fangs, for that matter), moved as he spoke. It was odd to see such a thing for a pikmin lacking a mouth. Still, after keeping company with the greens, Yeer was more used to it now.

"The guard?" Yeer asked.

"Yes. We keep that beast to protect the border of blue territory." He sighed, "Normally, the breadbugs that accidentally come this way are enough to satiate its hunger at this time of year, but…" Yeer, realizing that the entrance was protected by not only a bulbax but also water, realized that the blues must have been fairly protective of their land.

"Where are we going?" He asked curiously.

"This tunnel will take us out of the Canyonlands and to…the Steppes." The blue responded. Yeer noticed that he had been about to say something, but had instead said the Steppes. "They are our home." He turned to Yeer, and spoke up, "Now, if I may ask, what are greens and yellows doing in the same company?"

"…Long story," Yeer said, "…But, after all, I guess that's what we're here for."

--

**So, they've found a passage to the blue homeland, supposedly. What will happen next? What will the blues be like? Will I find a new ending-update gag? Find out next time on One Must Die! **

**Review, or I'm-a slice you up and feed you to that Bulbax. And trust me…he's hungry. Sorry for the long author's preliminaries and (um…)postliminaries, by the way…**


	30. Sanras Varninor

**Sooooo…Guess who rediscovered Starcraft?**

**Yeah, that was pretty much the cause of the delay—this time. However, with finals looming up towards me like some form of tidal-wave, Updates may be slow. Again. Anyhow, though, here's the chapter that should be significantly more climactic than it is…let us just say that, by the end of the chapter, I won't have to call the antagonist bugs 'barren-insects' anymore. COMMENCE WITH THE CHAPTERING!!1!**

_**WAIT! **_**One more thing. You may have noticed that this story has hit the 30 mark. I just wanted to say, you know, thanks for the reviews, encouragement, and constructive criticism so far. If if wasn't for you guys, there's no way that the story would have seen the day that Yeer and Lear reached these faraway lands. Thanks, guys, and without further ado...here's #30.**

--

It took Yeer a good deal of time to explain the whole story to the blue pikmin, who was named Urdnot. By the time he was nearing Lek's integration into the story, light shimmered down from the end of the tunnel. It was a bit of a shock to the system to see such brightness again, but the pikmin experienced more of a shock when they exited the tunnel and looked around them

Yeer could see why it was called the Steppes.

They had come out on a perfectly flat part of land. It was grassy, but the grass only reached ankle height. Halfway across the oblong section of flat land was a line of rocks, as well as a miniscule lowering in land. The farther side of the flat land was entirely ankle deep water.

The platform they were on was separated by another—higher up—by about an inch. The water splashed down on the right side of the next 'step' and onto the one they were standing on, and from that one, to the next one (about an inch below them). The steps were separated by about an inch each time, and were each divided into one half water, one half grass. They (there were about fifteen in total) were organized in a C shape, bordering the rock wall of the canyon that the group had entered from. Past the C shape was a large, deep lake that essentially filled the inside of the C, making an O. The platform the greens and yellows were on was towards the bottom of the C shape, and they could see that the far side of the lake was a waterfall leading to yet another lake below. Some of the water from the top step flowed down in waterfall fashion towards the lake.

Blues dotted the landscape, carrying in prey that Yeer had never seen before, and some he had seen—such as breadbugs and pellet posies. They were going up the steppes going towards the top, where Yeer could see some sort of large structure.

"It certainly is an eye-opener, isn't it?" Yeer turned to the blue, Urdnot, who was beaming around the area with pride. Yeer was startled when he noticed that Urdnot actually had three slashes running across the left side of his face—one went right across his left eye at about a seventy degree angle (they were all parallel), although is eye seemed fine. In the darkness of the tunnel, and during the panic with the Bulbax, Yeer must have not noticed. "Magnificent. Welcome to Sanras Varninor, our capital. In your language, it means 'High Ground'."

--

Yeer turned to look at Flewow, who looked as if he was about to pass out. The blue capitol, Sanras Varninor, was in a perfect place to be protected. Half surrounded by canyons, half surrounded by deep water, it was almost impenetrable—as well as quite beautiful.

Geer and Lear were similarly dumbstruck, and Lek looked around as if he were lost. Amazement and loss of words were commonplace among the non-blues.

"I suppose," Urdnot said, his voice deep (as were the voices of all blues), "That you wish to speak to Udonras?"

"Who?" Yeer asked rather stupidly.

"Udonras is our leader. He resides up there, with the archives," Urdnot said, pointing to the top of the C-shaped curve. "You want to speak to him about your mission, right?"

"Yes," Yeer said decidedly.

"Well then, I suggest you and whatever other leaders are here follow me. The rest of your party may want to stay here until things get sorted out." With that, he turned to the other blue. "Souldora, nai varay. Urdnot dona vin Udonras don dorunotai vermillion ai lime. Tonvo sansoft gont dona varay," Urdnot warbled the deep, musical syllables though his gills. The other blue nodded. Urdnot turned, and began to walk towards the next step up.

Dumfounded by what he had just heard, Yeer motioned to Flewow, Lear, and Geer. Much to Yeer's surprise, Geer motioned for Lek to come, too. The pink followed as the five pikmin turned and set out after Urdnot. One of the yellows made a motion to follow the leaders, but the blue placed a halting hand on his shoulder and shook his head at the yellow. The rest of the group silently watched as their leaders hopped up to the next step.

"Did you hear that!?" Flewow said in a hushed, yet excited, voice. "Did you hear _that_!?"

"What?" Lek asked.

"Their language!" Flewow sounded like he had just found an ocean of nectar. "Their _language_, I say! How I would like to know it!"

"Can't you learn it?" Lear asked, as they ascended a step. This next one, he noticed, had a blue seed-pod situated on it.

"Well, I could learn the _translation_," Flewow said, speaking as if he had already explained the matter a hundred times. "Only they can speak it, though. With their gills."

"Ah." Lear said in understanding. Urdnot was a few inches ahead of the group, but Yeer noted a slight smile on the blue's face, and had a suspicion that he could hear their conversation.

"Would you look at this place…" Flewow continued, gazing about the capitol. Most of the blues they passed, who had never seen non-blues before, looked at him quite differently than he looked around. "It's…It's…"

"Magnificent?" Yeer asked, using the same adjective that Urdnot had used.

Flewow looked at him, surprised at the extensive vocabulary. "Well…yes," He said shortly.

"I prefer my homeland," Geer commented, although there was a good dregree of awe in his tone. He was still a bit alienated from the group, although he was obviously closer than he had been when they had first met him.

"Same." Lek said, before looking at the canyon wall. "Still…"

They had gone up about four steps by now, and all of them were starting to feel a bit awkward. All the blues they passed stopped what they were doing and watched them go by wordlessly. Urdnot (for he was a blue) and Geer (for it was not in his character) did not seem to notice—or care—one bit, but the rest of them tried to avoid the weird stares.

Lear and Yeer exchanged a glance that represented what they were both thinking, which was primarily the statement, "Uh…". Geer glared at one of the blues giving him a stare, and the blue hurriedly looked away from the packmaster. Lek waved at one, who did not respond at all. Flewow stared back at them as if they were deities of some kind.

"I can't believe we are going to have the honor of going up to their archives!" He said, barely able to suppress his joy. "…That is where we're going, right?" He asked, his voice suddenly worried. Yeer nodded, and (while Flewow did not notice it) so did Urdnot at the front of the group. "They have such a massive collection of knowledge here, more than twice anything a yellow has ever known!"

"Terrific," Lear said, not sounding interested in the least. He was still taking in the sights. "Don't steal it all, okay?"

Flewow did not respond, but instead turned to the top step, anticipating his arrival there.

About a minute and a half later, they ascended to the top step. In front of the pikmin was a very odd-shaped structure; it resembled, as a human would remark, a desk without any sort of legs. There were five drawers, aligned vertically, and each one was about one foot high. If it was not slightly obscured by the steps below it and the waterfall leading to the lake, it would have stuck out by a sore thumb. Another blue seed-pod was stood to the side of the structure.

"The Archives," Urdnot said, turning to the others. Flewow nodded as he stared at the shape. "Follow me, if you will." Urdnot strode forward through a small hole at the bottom that looked as if something had smashed it open. He had to stoop over slightly as he did so, as did the others as they followed him.

It would have been completely dark inside if it wasn't for the holes in the ceiling and the ceiling aboe that ceiling, allowing light to shine down though them. It also showed the walls of the interior, which were covered in etchings of blue pikmin performing various actions—in one, Yeer noticed a blue pikmin fighting a large bulborb; Lear saw another that showed a group of blues cheering as torrential downpour covered the landscape around them. Some of the carvings were harder to make out than others, but all were fairly clear. The first thing Geer noticed was not a carving; he was quick to see that there was a bud-wielding guard in every corner of the room.

"Gont Varay?" A voice emanated from further inside. It was easily recognizable as gill-speak, and the figure was a rather tall blue. A flower graced his stem, as opposed to Urdnot's bud. He had not turned to face them, but was instead gazing at a carving of a blue swimming through water.

"Udonras, denanot don spectrum. Vermillion ai Lime ai Peach." He said, moving out of the way and holding up with hand in motion to the non-blues.

The blue—Udonras, for it was surely he—turned and faced the newcomers. He smiled widely, and said, "Welcome, foreigners. What brings you here to our capital?"

Yeer and Lear both looked to Flewow, who nervously stepped forward. "We are here for a bit of help, I'm afraid, and perhaps some information, if possible."

Udonras smiled. "If it is knowledge you have come for, you have certainly come to the right place." He then turned to Urdnot, and said in gill-speak, "Dona," Urdnot nodded, and backed out of the entrance while still keeping his head bowed to Udonras. "Have you come in numbers?"

"Yes," Flewow said, "Two seed-pods, one green and one yellow."

Udonras nodded. "Feel free to stay as long as you need, of course. What would bring a yellow seed-pod, and a green one as well, all the way out to Sanras Varninor?"

Yeer stepped forward and said grimly, "The loss of a different seed-pod." Lear nodded.

"We come because our archives are lacking, and we have great need of information," Flewow continued. "One of our seed-pods was attacked by insects outside our territory, and we have no knowledge of what the creatures are. We thought that coming to you would be a good idea."

"In what area were these insects located?" Udonras asked.

"To the east of our lands; the Barrens," Flewow said.

"Might I also inquire as to why the greens are accompanying you?" Udonras asked again.

"They have agreed to help us. It is a very great threat." What Yeer said satisfied Geer, who did not add any details. This surprised Udonras, who had awaited a response from Geer.

"And, the pink…" He said, looking at Lek.

"I joined them alone," Lek said shortly, but politely.

"Ah. I see." Udonras said, putting a hand to his chin. "Hmm…insects from the Barrens…I do believe I can help you. Follow me, then." He turned, and headed towards the far right corner of the room. The blue in the corner bowed respectfully as Udonras clambered through a hole leading to the next level up. The rest followed, one at a time.

The next level was exactly the same as the last—dark with some pockets of light, and a guard in each corner—but the carvings were very, very different. Udonras headed straight for one on the far wall, and the others followed him. Udonras looked up and began to dictate what he had learned about the image.

"Yes, let me see now…Almost two thousand days ago—about five or six years, long before I was born—a Crimson expeditionary force encountered a strange variety of hive insects to the southeast of Vermillion territory, in the dead-lands." He paused, in thought, as he looked at the picture. It showed a red and a blue charging at a six-legged, curve-jawed, tough-skinned insect with two antennae.

"That's it!" Lear exclaimed, pointing almost immediately to the bug. "That's the one!"

"The insects were all mentally united and worked together, similarly to pikmin. They were an organized adversary, unlike no beasts seen since the Wraiths and Mamutas. A connection between the deadness of the landscape and the insects, which were as numerous as they were dangerous, was made. The Crimsons, however, would not be caught retreating, and most were killed. Azure pikmin arrived after a message for help arrived at their nearby colony a few days later, and the Crimson and Azure force was able to destroy the 'ant' capital, a hive located partially underground. Deciding that the land was worthless to colonize, the survivors returned empty handed." Udonras turned and said, "That is all we have…I hope it matches what you need accurately."

"It definitely does," Lear replied, "But we didn't run into the problem to the _south_east."

"Than these 'ants' may have spread through the Barrens quite significantly," Udonras said.

"…There is a second reason we are here," Yeer said, rather bluntly. "We have come hoping to find help in fighting the, um, ants." Flewow, hearing Yeer say this, couldn't tell if he had said 'um' because he was nervous or if he had forgotten the name. He had a good idea, though.

"I was expecting you would say that," the blue leader said. "Normally, in search of knowledge to be added to the archives, I would agree with many warriors, knowing the past of these ants, but…we are dealing with a bit of a problem as of late." He stopped, and said, "We require all the help we can get."

"What is this issue?" Geer asked.

"Many of our warriors are off serving to fight the puffstool pikmin on the border of red territory, but alas, the threat is closer than we thought." He sighed, and then continued, "A small group of puffstool pikmin has somehow managed to make its waythrough red lands, a segment of the canyons, and into our territory. How it did this, I have no idea, but it is becoming a very serious problem. The zombie-min are raiding group of azures, warriors and otherwise, at random. Many of our people have gone missing; almost forty now. It is hard to track the enemy because they are always quick to disappear; they have only killed two so far. The only place we know they are located in substantial number is the temple of Zant on the southern end of our territory."

"Blue Alpha," Geer said, the first time he had said anything, "If we deal with this problem for you, would you be willing to help us?"

"I fear you may be unable to do so," Udonras said, "For a good part of our land is water."

"Well, if the puffstool pikmin are here and can't swim, then we should probably be able to find them." Lear said.

"This temple you speak of," Flewow said. "Is it submerged?"

"A few points of it are," Udonras replied. "But I can see your point." He paused again and looked over the five pikmin standing before him. "If you assist us in dealing with this menace, however, I would be more than glad to send a force of my own to aid you against the ants."

"Then it is done," Geer said, ending the conversation before any of the others could comment.

--

**So it looks like Get Fresh Cr****ü****e (I'm sorry, I just felt like calling them that) is gonna get into a showdown with some sondrum. Furthermoar, they'll be meeting a blue army division (if it didn't say anything about that, SPOILER!). There is also (do not read the end of this paragraph if you do not like teasing pseudo-spoilers) a somewhat General Grievous like character approaching in the near future…**

**"Build a Zealot!" "We require additional pylons."**

**"Write a new chapter!" "We require additional reviews."**

**Hopefully you see how it works. Spare some reviews, please!**


	31. Blue Corps

**Thirty-One is now online.**

**Yeah, so I'm heading to quite a few graduation parties nowadays, but I'm gonna go ahead and post this since I'm killing time to be 'fashionably late', or whatever. **

**By the way, the Grievous-y character I mentioned last time is actually not so Grievous-y. You may notice some similarities in one of the characters introduced in this chapter, though, where he makes his debut…**

--

For the first day they were there, the greens and yellows stayed on the step they had first come in from. However, they were almost instantly on the move the second day.

Unfortunately, the fastest ways through the blue territory were waterways, and were therefore unusable by the foreigners. Instead, they were forced to tote the seed-pods through a system of bright caverns alongside the many different descending levels of water. Small islands were visible on some of the levels of water they passed, and they were finally able to exit the caverns and use the sunlit route when they reached one level with a decent area of dry land.

This was also the last step before the region simply turned into a wide river running between canyon walls. They had left the capital.

Their path went alongside the fast-moving river, in which they saw a good quantity of blues and even some creatures. According to Urdnot (who had been reassigned from his dismal guard job to be the guide for the foreigners, along with the other blue as well), blues going south swam, and blues going north walked, primarily because going against the water was a foolish endeavor. After watching the water, Yeer could not disagree.

The deal that the yellows and Geer had come to with Udonras was this; they would join the regiments situated around the temple of Zant, and upon its cleansing, one particular detachment—belonging to a captain named, "Dorunot"—would join them in their journey.

Yeer has asked Urdnot if he had any knowledge of this captain. "Never heard of him," Urdnot had replied, "But his name means 'friend'."

"Really? What does your name mean?" Yeer inquired curiously.

"Skill," Urdnot had responded shortly.

They continued for some time along the long strip of land, and another day passed. They eventually reached a change in terrain; the sloping of the river and the land alongside it became far steeper. This forced them to slow down a good deal, and Yeer got the impression from watching Urdnot that he yearned to simply dive in the water for transport.

It took them half a day to reach the end of the steep slope, but when they did, the ground became virtually flat. The river turned ahead of them in a backwards C, the interior of which was essentially land. On this larger area of land, there were two seed-pods, and it was clear to the travelers that these were not gatherers.

A large supply of small stones were piled up to the side, and blues were all simultaneously throwing them at specific targets etched into the canyon wall. They threw the stones—which were small enough to fit in a single hand—with great speed and accuracy. A blue with his hands clasped behind his back watched the proceedings, shouting to tell them exactly when to throw in his native tongue (the word he used was 'hundrot', which was followed by the nose of stone hitting stone as the throwers released).

In another area, blues were practicing hand to hand combat. Partners of two would grapple with one another, attempting to push the other over exclusively by shoving. When one would fall over, they would exchange a few words and then continue. Another blue, this one lacking his left hand (leaving a nasty looking wound where the arm meets the shoulder), oversaw them silently.

It was awe-inspiring for the yellows, who had never seen anything like it. Urdnot watched as if he had seen it a thousand times, and Geer did his best to look unimpressed. Lek did not bother hiding his views, muttering a quick "Damn!"

The blues paused upon sight of the yellow and green seed-pods, most stopping to watch the foreigners approach. Urdnot led the group of travelers, and both of the blues who had been overseeing combat practice strode up to him.

"Gont don chavlore? Vermillion ai lime…ai peach? Chavlorai?" The one who had been watching the stone-throwers asked. The non-blues looked to one another, absolutely clueless. Flewow seemed to have some idea, as he perked up at words like 'vermillion', and 'don'.

"Denanot don durontai; onvo don vo shakont shakuras," Urdnot replied. "Vo chavlorai won onve ortcor."

"Quon spectrum varay, vo Varninor Chalot?" The same officer asked.

"Ort sond tanv. Lilnot don Udonras," Urdnot said. The officers looked at one another, and then nodded at Urdnot. They walked past him and approached the many greens and yellows. Lek, Lear, Yeer, Flewow, and Geer stepped forward to meet them.

"Welcome to Varninor Chalot," The one handed officer said, his voice somewhat soft, but rough. "We have been informed you are going to join us in the battle against the sondrum." Though it was a statement, it sounded a little bit more like a question.

The others had no idea what the sondrum were—except for Flewow. "Yes, that is correct. We are here to assist you."

"Then I suggest we make haste and discuss tactics. Are you a Chieftain?" The other blue asked, his voice imperious.

"No, I am not." Flewow said.

"Is one of them?" The one-handed blue asked, pointing a finger at the other yellows.

"…No. He's a packmaster, but the rest of us are not high-ranking leaders." Lear said, motioning to Geer on his mention.

"I am packmaster Geer of the Thorntooth clan," Geer said shortly. "Who might you be?"

"I am Oblot, captain of Sanras Varninor," The two handed blue said proudly.

"And I am Dorunot, also a captain of Sanras Varninor," The other said, coughing at the end of his statement. _That's the guy_ _we're looking for_, the three yellows, Lek, and Geer thought simultaneously.

"But, as I said before, we should discuss tactics. We are going to enter Novan Zant tomorrow." Oblot said. "Come." He motioned for them to follow him as he strode off towards one of the blue seed-pods, closely followed by Dorunot.

Yeer turned to the yellows. Set up here, and don't interfere with their training," He said to the nearest yellow, who nodded.

"You know what to do," was all Geer said to one of his warriors. With that, the three yellows, Lek, and Geer strode off after the two officers.

They stopped beneath one of the blue seed-pods, the blue glow in the center of the area where they were sitting. To be precise, they were sitting in a circle around the blue light, similarly to how Geer and the yellows had negotiated some time ago.

"How many troops do you have under your command, green leader?" Oblot asked.

"The best of my pack; twenty five of the best trained warriors of the north." Geer said.

"Only twenty five?" The blue scoffed. Geer frowned. "And you, yellows? How many?"

"I'm afraid we're not exactly sure about the numbers," Yeer said. "We're not very well trained, any of us, but we can fight. I can assure you at least forty warriors."

"Add one to that number," Lek said.

"Alright, forty one, then." Lear said.

"Not literally…" Lek commented. "I'm just trying to say, you know, I can hold my own."

"You pinks aren't exactly warriors," Oblot said. "Twenty five _hunters_," He said contemptuously, turning to Geer, who glared at him. "About forty _gatherers_, and a pink pikmin. How much do you really expect to help us?"

"I can assure you," Geer snarled, "That my pack could level this encampment with ease, blue." Oblot got to his feet, as did Geer.

"Please, please, we did not come here to fight!" Flewow exclaimed. Both standing pikmin looked at him, and then back at one another. Oblot warily sat down, followed by Geer.

"Can you give us any details on the enemy?" Yeer asked.

"Not many, I fear," Dorunot stated. "They do what their kind always does. Hide." He paused to cough, and then continued, "There are some of the sondrum spread across all of our territory, but this is the center of their group. They wait, set ambushes, and then return to their hiding places. They will be waiting for us inside the temple."

"We are not sure exactly how many there are, but we are guessing at least fifty or sixty of them." Oblot commented.

"That isn't very many at all." Geer said quickly.

"In a dark area, that could be a very problematic quantity of zombie-min." Dorunot said through another set of coughs. "I can tell you now that _I_ am glad to have the help." Geer's mouth curved upwards, if only by a fraction of a centimeter, as Oblot's expression became darker. "We cannot simply run inside and hope to wipe them all out. Normally, I would suggest collapsing the whole bloody place, but this is no pile of twigs."

"Novan Zant, temple of the god of chaos," Oblot said, adding a quick translation, "Is composed of ten primary levels. The puffstools are not unintelligent beings; they will have set up on each level, and will attempt to take us by surprise. Most of our ranged warriors will be worthless inside because of a lack of visibility, but we will need them if we want to kill the puffstool itself without taking any casualties.

All of the assembled pikmin had, one way or another, heard of the puffstool pikmin. "They resemble us," Dorunot said grimly. "But the sondrum are mindless, ruthless creatures. Under a puffstool, they are organized, but if we can eliminate the puffstool…" He stopped there, knowing that all of the others understood him.

"It will be on the lowest level, of that much I can assure you," Oblot picked up. "What I suggest is that we redirect part of the river to lead into the temple's entrance, then head inside. You foreigners are alright with ankle-high water, aren't you?" He asked. Flewow nodded slowly. Geer did not look happy about it, but he also nodded his head. "We will then simply have to push on through to the bottom of the temple. If they have left any traps, I suppose we'll have to spring them."

"Ready your forces for the battle tomorrow," Dorunot said. "We shall press the attack at daybreak." Flewow nodded respectfully, and the other yellows followed suit. They got up and headed back towards their seed-pods, which were now fully set up. Geer and Lek followed after them.

Dorunot got up, using his one arm to help. "Chavlorai don onvo, Oblot. Vo spectrum won vonod urias."

Oblot made a scoff of disapproval, not knowing that Urdnot was listening to their conversation while pretending to have a conversation with a nearby blue warrior. "Chalnot nod sansoft chavlorai malod. Chalnot nod spectrum…sond."

Hearing this, Urdnot ended the conversation in which he was feigning interest and returned to the foreigners. "There is something you should know," He said, tapping Yeer on the back. "I just heard a bit of conversation from those two captains."

"Really? What did they say?" Yeer asked.

"The one missing an arm is glad you are here," Urdnot said just before his expression turned grim. "The other said, 'the lives of my people matter to me. The lives of other pikmin colors are different.'"

--

**There are several different sorts of blues, but that will be elaborated on in the far future. But, yes, many of them are xenophobic, as we will continue to see. **

**Reviews would be cool…And sorry that the chapter is sorta short…**


	32. A New Era is Rising

…**Okay, so this was SUPPOSED to be in the segment of the story directly before the yellows encounter the pinks, because that is where it takes place in terms of time. I just realized that I, um, forgot it. …Ugh…Idiot moments….Well, its actually really important to the plot, and it brings back the 'shades of gray' that a specific someone mentioned in an earlier review (shades of gr**_**e**_**y, lol?). …Its very short, as it was supposed to be similar to the 'barrens moment' that randomly interrupted the story. There will be many more of those, some from the distant past and other times. Well, I hope you like it, anyways…Ugh, stupid me…**

--

The sun was close to setting on the day of the Great Hunt, though that was not important at the Brush. It was a normal routine for the yellows that day—hunting, gathering, and a bit of relaxing, too.

While not doing manual labor, Chieftain Wuyow certainly wasn't "relaxing". He stood on the side of the hill where the yellow seed-pods were located. He watched as the last of the day's harvest was being brought in, though his mind was far away…to be exact, he was wondering about the predicament of Lear, Yeer, and Flewow.

He stood there, silently contemplating, for many minutes. Almost completely silently during his contemplation, Lead (flanked by two bodyguards) strode up behind him. Off of his throne, Lead's oddly short and lanky stature was not nearly as intimidating; his massive guards, however, covered for him.

Though there approach was almost completely silent, Wuyow spoke up and addressed them as if they had made all the noise in the world. "I suppose this is it, then?"

"I'm afraid I do not…_quite_…understand," Lead said slowly.

"You're making your move now. You're going to attempt and remove my Chieftain status." Wuyow did not turn to face them, instead staring out at the more untamed part of the forest.

Lead clasped his wiry hands together and slowly advanced towards the other Chieftain. His two bodyguards stood mechanically still. "What would make you think that?" Lead said as he came to stand to the right of Wuyow, looking out as well. The tone of Lead's voice, which sounded quite impressed, did not match the question.

A silence fell. Wuyow was the one who broke it. "Do you plan to kill me?" Still, he did not turn to the shorter Chieftain.

Lead unclasped his hands, only to reclasp them behind his back a moment later. "It was not my intention. I take it you would prefer not to fight."

"I take no joy in shedding a yellow's blood." Wuyow said, his voice level.

"Several of your bud pikmin have decided to change their fealty to me." Lead said, delivering each word slowly.

"Power corrupts, does it not?"

"I full-heartedly agree." Lead did not turn to look at Wuyow, either.

"Where is Yedel?"

"He has taken up wandering, I believe. Perhaps he will become caretaker of the first Chieftain's statue."

"I expected you would do such a thing."

"Is submission not better than extinction in your mind?"

"That, my old compatriot, is a very good question." Wuyow paused for a second. "I expect this is the last I will be seeing of you."

"Perhaps."

"Well then, goodbye." Wuyow did not glance at Lead, even as the other turned to gaze at him. Wuyow turned on his heel and strode past the guards, who looked at him in surprise. "Long may you live, I suppose."

"Why, Wuyow, are you returning to the encampment?" Lead questioned as he looked after the form of the other—former—Chieftain.

Wuyow stopped, turned, and looked Lead in the eye. There was a certain glint in Wuyow's eyes that was not present in that of the other, and Wuyow asked the next question with a level of amusement. "You did not think I would be leaving _alone_, did you?"

--

**So, yeah. Shenanigans back home. More of the story to be uploaded very, very soon. Sorry this was so short...stupid me...  
**

**REVIEW, OR I KILL OFF YEER IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!! …Okay, I wouldn't do that, but seriously…you get the idea…Reviews would be nice…Also, somebody needs to tell me why I use so many periods…There it is again…and again…and aga—IT STOPS NOW! TAKE IT AWAY, EXCLAMATION MARK!**


	33. Prior to the Cleansing

**Sorry, thirty-two hour day in transit to Oxford. Couldn't update. There now. Very tired. Here's another one.**

--

The day waned on slowly, and Yeer decided that he had better get some of his yellows practicing for the battle tomorrow. Eventually, he got pairs of two set up to practice hand to hand fighting, but he could not help but feel embarrassed at how poorly the yellows compared to the blues and greens.

Most of the yellows were leaves, and they acted as such in both age and skill. Whereas Yeer would watch a blue take a punch from his partner to the face and remain standing, only to return a fist, he was lucky if he saw a yellow standing after any sort of assault at all. Watching his comrades was more like watching an untidy brawl than a military exercise; they kicked, shoved, and occasionally stumbled and fell over on their own.

The greens did not practice anything, but instead spent most of their time watching the yellows or blues. Though they were allies, Yeer could sense a good degree of spite in some of the greens. One of the closer ones, a bud, would laugh deeply in the event of a yellow making a mistake. For the most part, however, the greens watched the blues, eagerly waiting for one to do something stupid. They were waiting for a long, long time.

While Yeer oversaw his own people's training exercise, Flewow and Lek explored. Flewow did little more than marvel at everything that was connected to the blues—their territory, their training, their seed-pods, everything. It was starting to annoy Lek, too.

"Seems like you worship the bloody ground they walk on," He said in an oddly cheery sounding voice.

"Well…" Flewow quickly changed the subject. "Why do you say that in such a happy way?"

"Well, its not my right to tell you what to and what not to admire," Lek said. "…You know, even though I kinda just…_observed _it. I'm not saying you shouldn't. You and the blues… It's just kind of an_ eccentric _passion."

"Where did you learn words like that? Most yellows don't know what eccentric even means," Flewow asked.

"All pinks are educated to a high extent, since there aren't very many of us. Might as well know as much as you can if you're a dying breed," Lek said.

"The pinks aren't dying out," Flewow said, although it sounded more like a question. Flewow had never heard of such a thing in his teachings, though he did know information on the pink pikmin was indeed limited.

"Well, I guess we're just in a permanent state of dying out, then," Lek laughed grimly. "There have never been more than a hundred of us in one place. Considering we pretty much have to die to reproduce, though, that's not very surprising."

Flewow did know that much about pink pikmin; when one died, the seeds on the top of his head detonated outwards and dispersed with the wind currents. Some of the seeds would, eventually, grow into planted pinks. The requirement of wind currents was why Flewow assumed that pinks lived in the windy canyons, where they could also get up to the top using some of the drafts.

Flewow didn't really know how to respond to Lek's grim comment, but he was saved the trouble. They had been walking, and had passed the blue seed-pod a few minutes ago, now pacing around a slight curve in the canyon wall. Then, they saw it.

In the side of the canyon was what essentially appeared to be a smashed hole. It was wide and oblong, like the open mouth of a bulborb. Cracks emanated from the circle, scaling a good distance around the hole. Outside of the hole was a large granite object of curious design—the large Dasani water bottle stood next to the hole like a guardian.

There was no light in the hole, from what the two pikmin could see. The hole was easily accessible to pikmin, but there was no way a pikmin could see inside.

There was something ominous about the crevice. Something that made the pikmin curious to enter it, but they knew that they shouldn't. Just as Flewow was about to say something, he felt a hand on his shoulder and almost jumped in fright. He turned, and saw a blue pikmin with a bud there.

"I'm afraid I'll have to stop you there, honored guests. That's as close to the entrance of Novan Zant that we can go until it has been cleansed of the sondrum."

At the same time, Lear was walking through the blue camp, watching them. Mainly, he was inspired by the ones throwing rocks. Their accuracy and distance was almost perfect, and they all threw in unison.

Lear knew just from watching them that he desired to learn the skill. He remembered all the fights he had ever been in, especially the one against the bud yellow back at the Brush. He had decidedly come to the conclusion that close-quarters simply wasn't his area of expertise.

He walked up to Oblot, and said—with odd humbleness for his character—"Excuse me."

Oblot turned to him and asked, "Yes, what is it, guest?"

"I was wondering if you, or one of your marksmen, would…teach me how to throw like that. It's incredible," Lear complimented.

Oblot replied, "I'm not surprised you want to learn, but I'm afraid that I don't really have time to teach a completely new soldier such a complicated thing." With that, he turned on his heel back to the others.

Lear knew that it was a lie, just as Oblot knew that Lear knew it was a lie. Nothing could be done, of course, so Lear simply turned and walked off. He only made it about ten steps before someone else called to him.

"Hey, honored, excuse." He turned, and saw a bud blue approaching him. "You, want, learn?" He said, holding up a stone. Lear looked at him quizzically, and the blue said, "Sorry, not, know, you, language, good."

Lear looked at him for a second, and—if he had a mouth—he would have smiled. "Yes, I would like to know how." He accompanied the comment with vigorous nodding. "I'm Lear," He said, pointing to himself.

"Me, Tomnot," The blue said. "In, exchange, teach, me, you, language?" Lear did not understand for a second, but then suddenly caught on. _Teach him my language!?_

"Oh, um…okay," He said, nodding.

The blue pikmin smiled widely. "Follow, me."

Their training went on for a long time, until the sun was closing upon the edge of the canyonside that loomed over the blues, greens, and yellows. Lear was getting better with considerable speed, hurling the rock in a lobbing motion and striking an area about the width of two pikmin with every throw. The blue, Tomnot, also taught him how to flick the small pebble from his wrist, making it go much faster but at a shorter distance. Lear was a long way off from the blues, but he wasn't half bad.

Lear's progress with teaching Tomnot his language was a bit slower. Lear started mainly by teaching Tomnot some more vocabulary, and replacing words in the blue's sentences like "me" with "I". Verbs were the hardest; Lear only got a couple solidified in the present tense, like "talk" and "walk."

The sky began to darken, and the pikmin of each color slowly headed towards their seed-pods. Tomnot turned to Lear and said, "Thank, you, for, teach, I."

_Um…We'll go over that tomorrow_, Lear said as he responded in kind.

The sun had not completely set, but most of the pikmin were already back in their seed-pods. Lek, Flewow, Yeer, and Lear crawled up the side of the yellow seed-pod almost last, watcing as the greens and blues retreated into their own. They watched with some amazement as Dorunot, the one-handed blue captain, clambered up one of the blue seed-pod's legs. It was slow, but he did eventually manage.

The seed-pods buckled their supports and floated off off the ground, ascending into the sky and above the sides of the canyon. As they flew off, a single figure strode out of the entrance to the temple of chaos and watched them go, its bulky mushroom and stem blowing in a slight wind.

--

**Battle next time. Off to a pub for the Euro Finals. Have a good one. R n' Rs would be nice.**


	34. Into the Temple

I'm back again

**I'm back again! BYAAAAAAAAAAAH!**

**Twelve page chapter with multiple Star Wars references and multiple battle scenes…I thought of breaking it up, but, what the Hell.**

**Here-a We Go…**

--

Yeer awoke and felt the seed-pod beneath him moving slightly, descending towards the earth. He looked to his left, and saw Lear looking back at him. Lear had the tips of his fingers and toes dug into the seed-pod, absorbing energy from it just as all the other yellows were. Yeer looked to his right, and saw an empty spot. Flewow was on the other side of it, a glazed expression on his eyes.

Yeer looked to see that Lek had got up and was looking out one of the three holes as they descended, a joyful gleam in his eyes. _Something about being high up in the air makes him happy, I guess_, Yeer thought. _Maybe it reminds him of home_.

As he said those words, Yeer could not help but think about his own home. What was happening back in the Brush? How was the friendly Chieftain faring? Would he ever see the Brush again?

The legs outstretched, and Yeer felt the seed-pod land softly in the dirt. He stood up in the cramped seed-pod, and yellows began to head for the exits. They flowed out, onto the ground beneath them.

But something was waiting for them.

The first yellow to land on the solid earth was hit squarely in the head by a purplish stem with a mushroom at the very top. He fell over with a yell of pain, and looked up into the slightly bluish, dead-looking eyes of a zombie-min.

He screamed again before the mushroom pikmin brought its mushroom down mechanically, and broke his neck from the force of the impact.

There were at least forty of the demon-like pikmin running through the startled masses of yellows, attacking at random. As he came out of the seed-pod, Lear let out a shout of anger and warning at the ambush. He leapt from the top of the leg and landed squarely on his feet, standing alongside several other yellows as a group of mushroom pikmin charged forward, making a terrifying sort of squelching noise from the bottom of their throats.

One threw itself at Lear, and it tackled him to the ground. He hit it with his head, and rolled so that he had it pinned below him. What was about to happen would haunt Lear for a long, long time.

The mushroom pikmin slowly turned its head to look at him, and rasped through its throat, "You will be part of this curse." As the one mushroom-pikmin said it, so did every single one assembled and fighting the yellows, making a haunting chorous of voices.

Lear let out a yell of partial terror as he leapt up and brought his foot down on the zombie-min's face.

The greens landed, leaping out of their seed pod at the mushroom pikmin. Geer lead his warriors, landing on the back of a zombie-min and impaling it through the stomach with his fangs.

The two blue seed-pods also landed, and the pikmin dashed from it, slamming into the mushroom pikmin. Blue stone throwers lobbed their pebbles with ferocity, downing some of the rag-tag mushroom pikmin as well.

The ambush was slowly turned around and ended quickly. Silence fell as the last of the zombie-min hit the dirt, unmoving.

Fourteen yellows and two blues had been killed, but every one of the forty mushroom pikmin was dead. Geer roared loudly, and his warriors picked up on the noise and joined him. The yellows sat about, tending to wounds, as Yeer, Lear, Flewow and Lek ran to Oblot.

Dorunot and Geer followed them slowly. "We didn't see this coming," Flewow said when they were all assembled.

"We should head into your temple and begin the cleansing." Geer said. "End them quickly, before they can send more of these forsaken pawns at us."

"I concur," Dorunot said. "We shall head into Novan Zant now and eliminate the sondrum as fast as we can."

"Some of our fellows are wounded," Yeer said, looking behind him at some of the injured yellows. "We should probably give them time to—"

"The wounded won't help us in there," Oblot cut him off. "We'll post some guards here. Leave the wounded to rest, and bring the others." With that, he turned to his blues, and said, "Chavlorai, dona vin Novan Zant! Lomnot vin sondrum!"

"Vo ortcor cor Varninor Chalot!" Dorunot added, and the blues cheered. Their soldiers massed around the captains.

"I'll post guards," Flewow said, hurrying off.

"Hey, Flewow…Maybe you should stay here," Lear said abrubtly, calling after him.

"I beg your pardon? Why?" the scholar asked.

"You're planning our entire journey," Lear said. "If you die, we're in trouble."

"For the good of our people, stay here." Yeer added.

--

A few minutes later, a force of ninety blues, forty yellows, and thirty greens were assembled outside the crevice-like entrance to the temple of chaos. Lek, Yeer, and Lear stood in front of the yellows—Flewow had agreed, somewhat resignedly, to stay on the defensive.

"Time to spring the trap," Lek said quickly to Lear. Lear nodded, a stone held tightly in both hands.

"I must say, it feels odd without Flewow here," Yeer said to the others. Lear nodded again.

As one, the blues began to move towards the entrance, each bowing their heads as they passed the water bottle outside the hole. The greens followed the blues somewhat less eagerly into the darkness, completely ignoring the statue. The yellows were the last to move forward, some bowing respectfully—not knowing exactly why—while others simply passed through. Lek nodded, while Lear did not. Yeer quickly nodded, not wanting to be disrespectful, but not knowing exactly why he was nodding.

They took their first steps into the darkness rather nervously, and getting inside did not help. Visibility was incredibly low, and Yeer couldn't even see his hands. _How are we supposed to fight in this_? "Damn, it's dark," He heard Lek mutter, and had to agree.

However, just as he said it, there was a flash of light that almost blinded him. When he looked again, he saw Dorunot standing in the center of the wide room, holding a large leaf in his hand. Several other pikmin were holding the leaf with him, moving it out of the way of a giant pillar of light seemingly emanating from a hole in the top of the large, oblong room. It illuminated the entire room, and all its occupants; not a mushroom pikmin in sight. The pillar of light continued through a hole in the ground near the center of the room, down into the lower levels. Yeer thought he could hear a sort of shriek emanate from very far below, and it sent shivers down his spine.

"…Strange," Dorunot said to himself as Yeer approached the one-armed captain.

"What is it?" Yeer asked.

"With these leaves removed, the entire temple down to the seventh level will be completely bathed in light," Dorunot stated. "I thought we would meet resistance far before this. Still, we should keep our guard up; I don't know why the sondrum would not protect the barrier of light, but they are probably setting a trap elsewhere." He strode forward, coughing loudly as four bud blues surrounded him protectively.

Yeer looked around the room, and noted that there were many inscriptions of pictures on the walls. No time to observe them now, though; they were in a warzone, and they had to continue downward.

The large force of different pikmin colors slowly made their way towards the back of the room, where where was a large and rocky hole. "Dona," Yeer heard Dorunot say, and blues began to dive into the hole, which apparently led to the second level. The blues were followed by the greens, and finally the yellows. Yeer was one of the last ones to go through the hole.

"Well, nine levels to go," He said to himself as he hopped through. "Its not going too bad so far."

The next two levels were almost identical, brightly illuminated and wide. They continued through them without any problems. As they approached the hole on the third level, which was on the opposite side of the second, which was on the opposite side of the room from the first, an echo sounded from lower in the cave. It sounded like the movement of feet, but then it suddenly stopped. Geer growled loudly.

"Sondrum are waiting for us, be sure of that," Urdnot said to Lear. Lear still held the two pebbles in his hands, and the silence in the cave, accompanied by the tension and lack of action, was starting to make him uncomfortable.

The first of the many pikmin jumped through, and there was, for a few seconds, complete silence. This was followed by "Ugh!" and "Turnians, onvo!" several more indistinct murmurs. The pikmin who had not yet jumped through readied themselves for battle. A voice broke through the many others, breaking some of the tension of those who had not yet jumped. "Vant Dorunot, vonod vo chavlorai," Oblot called. Dorunot motioned to his blues, the ones who had not yet jumped, and they proceeded inside. The rest followed behind.

What they saw was absolutely sickening. As Yeer looked about the next level, he felt a sudden desire to crawl back up through the hole he had just come through and head for the entrance to the temple.

Blues were everywhere, and they were dead.

They weren't from the forces that had just entered; it was clear that they had been decaying for some time. Their mangled bodies covered the ground of the room, some missing limbs, others lacking stems, and some without heads. Each had been killed in what appeared to be an excruciatingly painful way.

In the very center of the room was a hunched figure. It was a zombie-min, and it was shuddering violently. It looked like a rabid animal, and was hunched over so much it was almost on all fours. Its slightly blue, glassy eyes gazed at the pikmin across the way.

Oblot raised his hand, and every one of the blues holding a rock placed one foot forward and lifted their rock, ready to launch them at the feral pikmin. However, before they threw, the lone mushroom pikmin opened its mouth.

"Go back. Get out."

"HUNDROT!" Oblot roared to his stone-throwers, and each simultaneously released. The stones flew across the room and stuck the zombie-min, and it crumbled to the ground as the rocks made sharp cuts all across its body.

Lear shuddered. He hated these things.

Dorunot was the first to step forward, coughing slightly as he stepped over the bodies of dead blues; his four bodyguards wordlessly followed him, soon surrounding him. "Watch yourself," He called to the others in the common tongue, so that they could understand. "Some of these corpses may be infected. Ready yourself for a fight, as one may come."

The group of pikmin began to follow the wounded leader, looking around at the corpses with expressions of fear, disgust, and worry. The blues who had thrown stones began to reclaim them from the floor of the temple, though some were looking for more than just stones. Lear watched one blue dash over to a nearby corpse and inspect it, shock covering his features as he called a name out a few times. The corpse, apparently someone he had known, did not respond.

"I hate zombies," Lear muttered to Yeer, who nodded in agreement. His eyes were transfixed on the body of a blue with a snapped neck, and—gruesome as the scene was—he couldn't pull himself away.

"This is not right," Dorunot said to Geer, who was now walking alongside the blue. "Why has the puffstool not taken these corpses as soldiers? Is it attempting to intimidate us?"

"It is failing miserably," Geer scoffed.

"I have to say that I wouldn't agree," Dorunot said before descending into a fit of coughs. Upon this comment, Geer looked back and saw one of his own prized warriors trembling in fear as he tried not to look at all of the dead bodies.

"That puffstool is one sick bastard," Urdnot stated gruffly. There were some murmurs of agreement from the pikmin near him.

"Do not waiver," Geer called out over the assembled crowd quite suddenly, although it was clear that he was specifically talking to the greens. "This beast will die, and it will not scare us off like a bunch of newborns."

"We will avenge the dead here." Dorunot spoke up without turning to face the masses.

Dorunot motioned to two of his guards, and they gulped slightly before hopping down the next hole. The crowd slowly followed, some looking as if they would rather die than go through the hole. Geer angrily pushed one of his own warriors on the back through the hole before following after.

The next level was, oddly enough, empty. The light, however, was beginning to dim slightly, and that worried the pikmin. If this was the fifth level of the temple, what would the tenth be like?

"Who's temple is this, anyway?" Lear said to Urdnot, trying to break the tension. However, it was not Urdnot who answered, but instead Lear's slightly speech-impeded friend Tomnot.

"Zant, god, of, chaos," He said, struggling around the words slightly. Similarly to Lear, he held a pebble in each hand; if it became necessary, he could always just throw punches while holding the stones.

And then, suddenly, chaos really broke out; the entire force was consumed by darkness.

For a split second, there was no noise. Right after that, there was a hubbub of terrified shouts, which were soon drowned out by the suddenly close-sounding shrieks of mushroom pikmin.

"Lear!? LEAR!" Yeer shouted, trying to find his companion in the blackness. The mushroom pikmin must have somehow turned out the lights and ambushed them, and now they were in deep trouble. If something was to happen to Lear…

"Lear, is that you?" He asked, grabbing a pikmin's hand. He couldn't see much in the darkness, but as the thing turned to face him, he quickly realized it wasn't Lear.

When two millimeters away from a zombie-min, things tend to become identifiable…especially the mushroom pikmin itself.

The monster screamed in Yeer's face, and he exclaimed in terror as he shoved the apparition away into the blackness.

Seperated from Yeer and the others, Urdnot frowned grimly. This wasn't good; the mushroom pikmin could sense friend from foe easily with their central subconscious, so the lack of light barely impeded them. However, it was a very different matter for the yellows, blues, and greens.

"DIE!" He heard the pink's voice emanate from nearby, followed by a shriek of pain from a zombie-min. He ran in the direction of the voice, hoping to rally some others together.

"Pink one, is that you!?"

"Yeah! What in the name of the forefathers is going on!?" Lek responded, and Urdnot could barely make out his form through the darkness. His eyes were slowly growing more accustomed to the light.

"Chavlorai—" The two heard Oblot begin to say something, but his voice was suddenly drowned out by the shriek of a mushroom pikmin.

"Embrace eternity, and be mine," The droning voice suddenly sounded from many mushroom throats, and there were some screams of terror in response to the ominous statement.

"VIN DONA LOMNOT, SONDRUM!" Dorunot's hoarse voice yelled over the uproar as he cursed the zombie-min. "DENANOT NOD NOLAND, LOMNOT VIN VLAD!"

There was a roar of approval from all of the blues, and a sudden change in the battle. Shrieks of mushroom pikmin were either cut off as they were killed, or faded into the distance as the beastlike-pikmin fled to safer regions.

Brightness rather suddenly returned to the room, in an almost blinding fashion. Urnot turned and saw the last mushroom pikmin, dashing towards the next level, shriek over its shoulder at the pikmin. However, before it got two more steps, two stones flew at it and stuck into its back, and the zombie collapsed forwards and writhed in its death throes. A nearby blue soon ran up and stomped heavily on its head, ending it agony and noise.

"Blasted sondrum," Urdnot growled, looking around at the scene of battle. It wasn't pretty.

Yellows were the primary things on the ground; most were either dead or dying, with broken necks, snapped stems, or otherwise. Urdnot quckly looked through the still standing pikmin to see if he could find the ones he knew. The two blue captains, yes, the green, yes, the two yellows, yes, and the pink—yes.

However, one of the yellows was on his knees next to a corpse.

Lear looked over the body of Tomnot with horror; his tutor and his student was badly injured. His stomach was caved in, and his stem and left arm were broken. A claw-mark covered his neck, and he gurgled something in an attempt to speak. "Tomnot…" He said, looking into the blue's quickly fading eyes.

"T…e…teach…Th…tha…n…k…" Lear could only understand syllables. His eyes, which had been focused on Lear, then rolled backwards as his head hit the floor and he gave a last groan. Lear stared at him for a few more seconds before closing his eyelids. Lear stood up heavily, still looking at the fallen blue.

Lear felt a hand on his shoulder, and instantly knew it was Yeer. Still, he didn't turn to the comforting yellow, instead keeping his eyes on the blue.

"Come," He heard Oblot say to the masses of assembled pikmin who were still alive. "We have work to do, and friends to avenge." There was a chorous of agreement from the crowd, and Lear nodded slightly as he turned away from the body of the blue he had known.

Yeer knew that the blue wanted them to press on before the remaining troops could calculate just how many of their fellows had died, but he knew it was a lot. Just looking around the sea of stems near him, he noticed that there were significantly less yellows, which worried him greatly. He felt a sudden collapse in his stomach as he realized that he had the deaths of his fellows to answer for.

In total, they were a sparse group compared to a few minutes ago…

As the three greens who Geer had sent to return the light (he had sent them almost as soon as the lights went out) hurried back and reported that they had seen no mushroom pikmin on the top level, the group readied themselves to continue. There were winces of pain as pikmin forced themselves to move through injuries—no one wanted to be left behind in here.

They continued down, and it seemed like an eternity. Yeer counted off the levels (some of which had puddles of water in some areas, much to the worry of the non-blues) in his head as things continued to grow darker and darker, every second fearing that the lights would go out again—even though, apparently, there were now some guards around the light source. When they hit the ninth level, Yeer let out a breath that he had been holding through almost all of the eigth. _One more before the puffstool_, he thought. _A fight will come any second now._

"Why do you continue?" The noise was sudden, and came from the level below them. It was echoing around the temple, and exuded from many throats—that much was clear. "Accept your fate. Submit."

Urdnot relayed information about the puffstool to Yeer, who yelled it out the yellows. "Do not approach the puffstool, as it will attempt to infect you with spores if you come in range! Stay back, and cover the stone-throwers as they kill it safely!" Yeer heard Dorunot and Oblot issuing orders in the blue language as well, and Geer had gathered his hunters together and was hissing instructions to them through bared fangs. Some of the instructions were simply barks or growls that Yeer had no understanding of.

The troop stopped in front of a large hole leading to the tenth floor, and visibility was becoming dangerously low now….Maybe about ten inches, maximum. Dorunot coughed loudly before turning to face the assembled crowd.

"Blues, yellows, greens." He said rather calmly and quietly, while still letting all of them hear his voice. "Below us is the filth that has fought our people for generations."

"You cannot stop our Vanguard. It would be wiser to submit." The voices of the mushroom pikmin sunded from below, cutting Dorunot off. He coughed.

"The foul thing had made puppets of our friends, invaded our home, and secluded itself in one of our most precious temples," Dorunot said, and his focus was clearly on the blues now. "It has the audacity to face us, and will not stop until we are all dead."

"Why not end the mockery of life you live? If you join me, you will be at eternal peace, and bliss…"

"Do not listen." Dorunot said sharply, beating out the many zombie-min voices. "I say that, if it will not stop until we are dead, we do not stop until _it _is dead."

There were roars of approval from the crowd, from each color. Geer laughed with his fangs bared, and it seemed that bloodlust was starting to take hold of him. Battle was close, so close…

"We will cleanse this insult to our people from the face of the earth!" He shouted, pumping his only fist into the air. The roar from the pikmin masses drowned out whatever the puffstool was attempting to say.

"KILL THE SONDRUM!"

The frontline charged down the hole, and the rest of the pikmin soon followed, not to be outdone. Almost instantly, the pikmin were engaged in combat as zombie-min lunged from the darkness and flung themselves at the real pikmin.

But they were no match.

Urdnot grabbed a zombie-min by its head and slammed the apparition's skull down onto his knee. One charged at Lear, and he hurled a stone at it that went flying through his chest, exiting on the other side. Yeer kicked one in its stomach and followed the attack up with a slam to the neck with his stem. Lek leapt into the murk, floating upwards slightly as the tip of his stem brought him higher, before he began to descend and proceeded to kick a mushroom pikmin in the face.

Two mushrooms weren't a match, at this point, for the enraged pikmin, but there seemed to be hordes of them. As Udrnot punched one in the face, knocking it over on its back, three more rose up to replace it and leapt at him, pushing him to the ground. With a yell, Yeer pulled one of them off and hit it several times with his stem. Urdnot kicked one off of him as the other attempted to stangle him, but Yeer soon tackled that one off too.

Dorunot oversaw the battle from the back of the pikmin mass, his bodyguards easily handling any zombie-min that got too close. Oblot performed a similar task, commanding the stone-throwers.

"Push forward!" Dorunot yelled to the troops, and they began to take ground towards the other side of the room. The flow of mushroom pikmin continued, but the pikmin could see a large form in the distance, an enormous, two-legged fungi…

"HUNDROT!" The stone throwers, including Lear, released, and the force of the stones push the far-off puffstool over, hitting the ground with a thud. However, the mushroom pikmin seemed to suddenly ignore all the pikmin but the stone-throwers.

Two of them, the farthest ones to the right of the line, were ripped to pieces by the feral zombies before anything could be done. "You will not stop me!" The voice of dozens of mushroom pikmin thundered loudly, and one of the greens near the front seemed to lose control. It bolted from the line, charging at the slowly rising figure of the puffstool, roaring as it bared its fangs and prepared to leap.

Spores suddenly filled the air, and the green (along with a nearby yellow and two blues) shouted in anguish. The green stumbled to the ground and writhed there as its skin seemed to rip apart, and took a purple tinge…

"HUNDROT!" Oblot's voice sounded out again, and the stone throwers who still held projectiles loosed them. They sailed across the room and struck the enormous mushroom, one hitting the joint of its left leg. Is seemed to stoop forwards slightly before falling completely, making a very strange noise as it did so.

"Do you really think you can stop me!?" The chorous of voices was becoming deafening, and the haunting laughs that followed the statement were more than enough to lower morale. In the distance, Yeer could see that the puffstool was now actually upside-down, with its feet in the air and its mushroom on the ground, it must have somehow retracted its eyestalks into the fleshy top of the mushroom. In horror, he watched as it began to spin.

The nearby pikmin and zombie-min were crushed under the spinning puffstool or batted away. The zombie-min paid no heed, and more unflinchingly run into the maelstrom if it was between them and a specific target. However, the nearby pikmin reareated madly. However, as Yeer watched, he saw the figure of Geer charge at the mushroom. He toop an enormous leap, and jumped over the spinning, curved 'top' of the puffstool, and landed on the fleshy underside. He sunk his teeth into it, and the creature made another odd noise.

Yeer watched as ten more greens followed their Alpha's example, jumping and biting into the flesh. The puffstool writhed in agony, but then suddenly stopped.

"AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHGH!" The cry from the mouths of the mushroom pikmin began simultaneously, but stopped at a different time for each and every one of them. They collapsed to the ground suddenly, unconscious. …However, several seconds later, the hopped up and looked about them warily before attacking again.

However, this time around, they attacked everything; as Yeer watched, he saw a mushroom pikmin and another mushroom pikmin fling themselves at each other, shrieking all the while. Urdnot grabbed one by the throat, lifted it off of the ground, and smashed it back down.

This battle was over.

--

**BYAAAAAAH! I'm still in England, and I'm a little bit tipsy at the moment, but yeah. I wasn't when I wrote the chapter, just now when I'm writing the notes. Reviews would, as always, be nice. I want to know if you guys liked the fights. Rn'R!**


	35. Departure

**Gents, we've broken 100, and its all thanks to you. So...thank you. I have a bit of a present prepared for you guys...but that will come later...**

**Yes, its short. I just got back from Oxford and had a…lemme see…thirty-four hour no-sleeping run. So I'm tired. Yeah. But here's the next chapter, anyway. What kind of shenanigans will our heroes get into next?**

--

It was several days later. Blue pikmin had arrived at the temple to clean out the decaying bodies of the dead. The survivors from the battle had returned aboveground to their seed-pods, shaken by what they had seen. Flewow, though relieved to see all of his friends return, knew the second he saw his companions that there had been some horrific things that they had been made to face. Lear seemed especially bothered, and lingered around the bodies of the fallen even after the funeral service was over.

After the battle Dorunot and Geer had participated in a long discussion with one another concerning the battle. Dorunot had been slightly annoyed at the green's sudden attack on the puffstool, but had admitted that losses would have been more grave if it was not for the greens. Geer told Dorunot that he was impressed by the blue captain's ability to rally soldiers. The two had essentially become friends after that, discussing previous battles in their lives. Dorunot was considerably older than Geer, but viewed him as an equal. Geer seemed to have picked up some respect for the blues.

A messenger from Urias had come to tell Dorunot of what he his new mission was, and saved Flewow some trouble—though not all of it. Explanations were given, and agreements were made. Dorunot brought his seed-pod with him, and bid farewell to Oblot…though the final meeting seemed a little tense. Three seed-pods—one green, one yellow, and one blue—had set out towards the blues' southern border.

"Varninor Chalot is long and narrow," Dorunot had explained to the others as they began. "It will take us a few days to reach its end."

Water accompanied them every step of the way, as did various blues traveling from one place to another. "It'll be odd to stop seeing water as much when we leave," Urdnot commented. "I'll have to go for a last swim."

Yeer spent the time traveling mostly wondering what working with Dorunot would be like. He wanted to know more about the blue.

"If you do not mind me asking, Captain," Yeer has said to him one day, "What happened to your arm?"

Dorunot did not seem to mind at all, and began to explain. "It was one of my first fights. We were protecting our borders from sondrum when one of the nearby workers yelled for help, and we saw that a group of chalot tanstorv—water dumples in your tongue, I believe—were attacking some of our workers in the water. I was one of the first to jump in.

We tried to surpress the overgrown slugs—I think there were three of them, and about ten of us—until our workers were safe. I grabbed onto one and started beating it, but another one bit at me while I was still on top of the first one. It took my whole damn arm off, but someone else pulled me to safety, and I lived. Three of us didn't, one of which I had known since birth. The only reason any of us lived—for we were fresh recruits, and were in way over our heads—was because some more soldiers came and drove the slugs off. I've never been able to fight hand to hand since that day. They wanted me out of the military—they said that they couldn't be held down by a wounded recruit."

"How did you get promoted, then?"

"I stayed, and agreed to be a stone-thrower—a fairly dishonorable practice in comparison to a frontline warrior. I had no intention of doing so, but I wanted to stay in the world of battle to protect my people. We were ambushed on the outskirts of our territory by sondrum—somehow, they have managed to solidify themselves near our borders, and occasionally enter. But anyhow, we were cooped up on the top of a large rock—it was only stone throwers and a couple of soldiers. I suppose that I would have died if I had been in the direct fighting, along with most of our patrol. However, our leader was killed, and I took command, and pushed the zombie-min back. They were bound to overrun us eventually, but some crimsons arrived—if memory serves, they were negotiators coming to greet us. They took the zombie-min by surprise, and the sondrum pulled into retreat. Still, I felt a little bothered to have my life saved by a _crimson_, of all things."

Flewow had told Yeer that 'crimson' was what the blues called red pikmin, and he did not press any further into the matter, not wanted to push what seemed like a tender subject. After all, Dorunot had shown no prejudice against greens or yellows, but there was something in his voice that insinuated a dislike for reds. Yeer made a mental note to ask Flewow about the past of reds and blues.

"It's a little sad, I suppose," Dorunot continued, much to Yeer's interest, "I was cut down in my prime to save a civilian, and my honor has been scarred ever since. Nevertheless, I will serve until the end of my days, be it in battle or otherwise." After this statement, he collapsed into another series of hacking coughs.

--

"Chavlorai, nai varninor!" The 'hold ground' command was obeyed by the forces, although they looked ready to break in an instant.

The wave of dreadful insects—ants—charged toward the blue frontline like a sea of bared fangs (which was essentially true, from what the blues could see). Captain Gandon and his soldiers held fast, and the stone-throwers loosed their projectiles at the enemy. Several ants were killed by the rocks, but the losses were unheeded, as more ants simply strode over the bodies of their comrades.

The shadow of the sandy hill that the ants were pouring from towered over the entire fight as Captain Gandon's force attempted to seize the peak of the ant colony.

When the ant wave reached the blue frontlines, there was an immediate clash. Blues hurled themselves at the ants, attempting to leap over the mandibles of the insects and land on their backs. Many blues didn't make the jump, and were impaled or bisected by the serrated maws of the ants. The blues who did manage to get atop the ants and kill them had to react quickly if they wished to avoid being overpowered by the second part of the wave.

Gandon stomped one of the smaller ant's heads into the ground—the head, minus the mandibles, was about the size of Gandon's chest—before leaping to another. It snapped at him, but he dodged the biting attack and then grabbed the ant by its antennae, and pushed its head into the ground before breaking its vulnerable neck.

"Hundrot!" He shouted; as he did, his frontline soldiers all ducked, even in the midst of battle, as his ramn (stone-throwers) flung more rocks, taking out many unprepared ants. As they prepared more stones, the warriors of the frontlines rose up and pummeled more of the advancing ants.

_We are truly beasts_, Gandon thought, taking a moment to survey the progress his troops had made over the crumpled ant bodies. However, he was suddenly distracted by a loud battle cry coming from his right.

"HAAAAAA!" Dozens of crimsons—or reds, as they called themselves—piled onto the far flank of the advancing ants, breaking their formation with ease. The reds spread through the rapidly dissolving ant phalanx, smashing heads and toppling bugs as they went. Gandon frowned as he saw this. _Uncivilized crimsons…they do a good job of cutting into someone else's fight_.

"Come on, soldiers, drive them back!" Gandon spotted the crimson leader pointing to the top of the colony, where more ants were already emerging, and the reds cheered and made for the bottom of the summit. However, something happened that none of the pikmin were expecting; three of the ants on the top of the hill suddenly rose into the air, long wings beating on their backs.

They landed at random in the pikmin lines, ramming into shocked pikmin and ramming them into the dirt. One of the flying ants performed such a maneuver on the red captain, slamming him into the ground as he gave a yell. In an instant, Gandon was there, wrenching the flying monster off of the crimson. It turned towards him and snapped its mandibles, but he ducked under the jaws (moving his stem out of the way, obviously) before slamming his stem into the creature's chest and pushing it over onto its back, breaking one of its wings in the process. He smashed his foot through the armor-plating in the center of the ant's body and them ripped off one of the creature's mandibles with shocking force.

He turned, holding the mandible in a now-bleeding hand, just in time to see one of the flying ants about to hit him. He stopped it rather efficiently by stabbing the broken mandible straight up through the ant's head, killing it instantly.

He turned back to the red captain only to see that an ant had bit off the crimson's head while Gandon was distracted. However, the ant advance has suddenly stopped, and the battle suddenly grew quiet.

The azure pikmin and crimson pikmin burst into cheers, and a secondary red captain—apparently the new C.O.—approached Gandon. The crimson had a bad stratch across his right thigh, but it didn't seem to impede him.

"Well met, blue."

"That's 'azure' to you."

"Well, someone's in a particularly fine mood," the red said gruffly, turning away. His attempt at conversation had quickly been shut down by the imperious blue pikmin, and he wasn't going to try anymore. "Don't celebrate yet, reds," He said to a mass of his own troops as he pointed to the hole on top of the colony. "Ready yourselves. We're going in."

--

**So…If you're wondering what was up at the end of the chapter, let me explain. These events are not actually happening in the present, but instead are the past. The distant past. I apologize to anyone who wanted to see the Barrens in the present, but I'm saving that for later. I tried to give you SOME Barrens, though.**

**So, yeah, E3 was cool. Though I don't play Gears of War, its sequel looks pretty sweet. Also, I almost went insane when Bungie had to delay the release of their new project…but at least Halo Wars had a good showing. **

**R n' R please!**


	36. The Hallowed Forest

First of all, yes, it has been a good bit of time, and I apologize

**First of all, yes, it has been a good bit of time, and I apologize. I really don't have any sort of excuse, except that a relative came to visit, and I had to show him all around the hometown (D.C., by the way. Go Nationals, Skins, Wizards, n' Caps). **

**The other reason I haven't updated in a while is because I actually started my own story, which is not fanfiction—it is entirely original. Its sci-fi…I guess I'll post it somewhere sometime. **

**So, as a present, I took the next two chapters and made them into one. …It's a good thing I did too, because the chapter is still pretty bloody short.**

The large pikmin convoy suddenly stopped as Dorunot pointed to something in the distance, near the foot of the rapidly descending canyon that they were following. "There," He said, "Begins the land of the parasite."

There was a pause. "Parasite?" Yeer asked him.

"Indeed; the territory in the control of the coral pikmin is truly a place of mystery," He said. "Even the sondrum tend to avoid it, for that forest holds superstition that even they may fear."

The convoy slowly continued to move again, nearing the end of the canyon, and opening where the rock walls suddenly halted. "Be on your guard when we enter," Dorunot warned. "The parasites are fast and quick. If they mean us harm, they will strike when we least expect it."

"How do you know?"

"I have been in this forest before. Hopefully, they will not see us as an ill prescence…" Yeer noted that trees towered over the walls of the canyon know, casting deep shadows over what appeared to be a thick underbrush of weeds and bushes. They were at the very foot of the canyon now; a few more steps and they would be inside the shadowy undergrowth. "We must go through the Hallowed Forest if we are to continue. We will head west upon entrance and make for the fastest exit," Dorunot said grimly.

And, a few minutes later, they were surrounded by shadows. Visibility among the multitude of plants was low, and they had to push many leaves out of their way. The sky was almost completely blocked out by not only the tall bushes and weeds, but also the trees that were high in the air. He could hear faint calls of creatures, ranging from squeaking to buzzing.

And slowly, Yeer began to get the impression that his mind was playing tricks on him. A faint flicker of movement here, or a rustle of a leaf there…Once he even thought he saw what looked like a small, red and white body move by in the faint distance.

"This place gives me the creeps," Lear said worriedly.

"Lear, _everywhere _gives you the creeps." Lek joked, trying to lighten up the mood. It didn't help.

Suddenly and randomly, Dorunot stopped walking. Yeer, standing nearby, almost bumped into him. "What is it, Captain?" Yeer asked, growing more and more afraid. The caravan continued moing at a slow pace, any conversations cut down to murmurs. They had been close to the front, and the caravan continued moving even as they stopped.

"They know we're here. They're watching us." Upon hearing this, Yeer began looking around into the thick brush. "Stand firm. They sense fear, you know…" None of the things Dorunot said were reassuring, but sure enough, Yeer stopped, and slowly began scouring the distance with his eyes. The shadows cut his visibility, and he was having a hard time seeing any—what was that!?

Nothing…or at least, whatever it _might _have been, it was nothing. Could that have been a pair of eyestalks he had seen for a brief instant, staring right back at him.

"Hold," Dorunot said loudly, but calmly. "Stop in your tracks, pikmin." They all heard him and halted, noting that something must be up. "Quiet, now." There was total silence, except for a growl of annoyance from Geer, who also knew from years of hunting that he himself was being watched, perhaps to be hunted…

"Parasite, listen to me, now," Dorunot said, raising his voice, as many pairs of eyes turned to him. "You know of our trespassing, and we know you are watching. Know that we come with no ill towards you. We mean you and your forest no harm, be assured. Please allow us passage through your forest."

There was silence as pikmin began to turn back to the under brush. The silence was complete, consuming all…for about thirty seconds.

At its end came a high pitched series of squeaks that made several pikmin jump in surprise. However, there was now underbrush in the forest around them, though it was aboundantly clear that something was monitoring their progress. The yips were met with a somewhat deeper single bark, followed by a high pitched nose similar to a 'meow'. This was met with two more quiet, deep barks. This was followed by the rustling of undergrowth—then, suddenly, there was a flash of movement.

It was not towards the pikmin, but it was clear that whatever it was that was watching them was on the move. The parasite—perhaps parasites—had bolted. Leaves moved slightly as creatures dashed past them, though the creatures themselves went unseen.

There was a thirty second pause, and then Dorunot spoke up to his compatriots, "Come, let us continue." This was followed by coughing.

--

"Flewow, I kind of wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Well—"

"Will you two _shut_ _up_? I'm getting an ominous vibe from this place, and if those things are still watching us, you're not helping the situation."

"Sheesh, sorry, Lear," Yeer said, talking much more softly before continuing, turning back to Flewow. "What is the history in between blue pikmin and red pikmin?" Not only was Yeer curious about the subject, but he also wanted to break some of the tension of strolling through the seemingly haunted forest.

"…I'm afraid I'm not quite sure where to begin," Flewow said after a few seconds. "They are…they've had mixed times.

"You see, the blues used to be the most powerful part of the pikmin color spectrum. And after they found their promised land, which is Sanras Varninor, they holed themselves inside it and grew fairly xenophobic. Still, due to growing populations, they did expand into a few nearby areas. The reds, however, expanded a lot faster; they were completely obsessed with the creation of different colonies all over the known lands. They were also the most common—and still are the most common—color in terms of population. Since there were so many of them, they would often accidentally or purposefully settle on territory that belonged to other colors. This led them to several problems and disputes, but no real fights, at least until they tried to settle in land that belonged to the blues. This angered the blues greatly, and when no compromise could be reached, they entered a war.

"It was a very bad one, with many deaths on both sides; however, the reds repopulate so quickly, they weren't really affected by the losses. The blues, meanwhile, were suffering from the war. Even with some help from a few other colors that were somewhat angry with the reds, they could not prevail. Still, they could rarely be beaten on the defensive. At one point, the blues even declared the conflicts to be a Holy War, and released the deadly Zealots on the red heathens. Never before or since, except for maybe once, had they used their religion as backup for a war…and they were never so feared, even by allies."

"Zealots?"

"Zealots were a type of blue soldier that were the best of the best, and were also religious enforcers; they sought to find a perfect balance between civilization and chaos, calm and rage, and so on. The war seemed to be a bloody stalemate with no true winners, and eventually the other pikmin nations stepped in to stop the war.

"The Treaty of High Ground, also known as the Treaty of the Steppes, was the end of the war. It almost didn't work, as several red emissaries and representatives staying in the blue capital not only got into fights with blue negotiators, but were targets for blue xenophobic extremists. Still, they eventually came to a rather forced agreement that stopped the Expansion War. The blues agreed to stop fighting as well as disband their Zealot units, and the reds agreed to stop the war and not expand on the territory of any other color. This lead them to explore in other areas, like the Barrens—where they apparently found the ants. The two colors have never completely gotten over the war, even though they've fought together on numerous occasions.

"Its hard to believe that the reds would have held to their side of the bargain if their numbers had kept rising so quickly, but they encountered the puffstools shortly after the war, and have been in a war with the zombie pikmin ever since. This has kept their numbers relatively balanced, as they have never come close to winning or losing."

"That was…a lot."

"Well, they do have a very long history, Yeer."

"Wow, that is pretty intense…"

"Lear, weren't you just telling us _not_ to talk a few minutes ago?"

"…Quiet, you."

A short way off, a single pikmin frowned, after having overheard the entire story. _Red bastards…Hope we don't see many of them…_

A series of harsh coughs erupted from in front of them from another pikmin who had heard them talking. "If you want to hear of any of the atrocities they committed, yellows, ask me later," Dorunot growled through the coughs. "Know this, comrades," He said, turning around with an expression that Yeer had never seen on any pikmin's face before. "Our kind will _never_, I repeat, _never_, forgive the crimsons. They started the war, they set two of our seed-pods up in flames as a message not to fight with them, and we would _still _be smashing them into the dirt for it if the rest of the spectrum had not objected." He coughed harshly before commenting, "Honestly, if they were all indoctrinated by the sondrum," he paused again, coughing, before finishing, "…I wouldn't much care."

The three yellows looked at him, rather stunned by the remark. A distance off, Urdnot smirked rather darkly. Geer, also nearby, turned to the three yellows and said loudly in his hissing voice, "Do not be so surprised. There was a time when my ancestors and your ancestors felt the same way."

_Some yellows and greens still do, I'm sure, _Yeer thought. This brought him to wonder exactly what would happen when (or perhaps if) they arrived back in the Brush with greens in their company. _The Brush… _Ah, how much he yearned to see his old home again…

--

**Hopefully, this filled in some questions about reds and blues, and also got some people excited about the parasites, which we will see more of, I can assure you. **

**I actually made a pretty big dictionary of not only the blue language, but also a short document concerning the history of every pikmin color. I'll probably post both of those at some point.**

**Reviews would be beyond awesome. Remember that snowball.**


	37. The Forest Folk

**Okay, guys. My bad. I…yeah, my bad. Allow me to explain myself.**

**First of all, Force Unleashed comes out tomorrow. That's a big deal. Second, Spore came out—also a big deal, even though I don't have it. Also, school started, and I've been reading the fall play, and will be attempting to take the role of the bumbling, sniveling henchmen Cecil in it. If anyone can guess what play it is, which I couldn't do all summer, you're awesome. **

**And, of course, I got Gears of War. Yeah, I know. AWWW SNAP!**

**No, but seriously, I spent an entire day blazing through the campaign on Casual, and (second day owning it, mind you)—I'm almost at Fenix Manor/Mansion on Hardcore.**

**But enough about me. Without further ado, here be the chapter.**

--

The ground was sparse. There was very little vegetation, and the earth was merely hard dirt. So many pairs of feet had crossed the land, that any chance for plants to grow on the ground had been vanquished.

He ground itself was rather like a very short valley. About five feet across, it was flat, but then rose up almost two feet on each side. The depression in the ground was uninhabited.

Until, rather suddenly, a single umarked spectralid—yellow in color—landed in the middle of the valley. It didn't seem to have a motive for doing so—there were no food sources in the valley—but perhaps it merely needed to rest its wings.

It stood there in the valley for almost thirty seconds before it heard something from far off. It sounded like the very earth beneath the spectralid was shuddering—something large was coming this way. Quickly, the noise became a loud rumbling that really did seem to rock the earth with its intensity.

Then, as the noise reached its climax, its source could be seen. Reds crested the right side of the valley—hundreds of reds. They completely covered the slope leading into the valley, one of their number pausing and pointing towards the other side of the valley. The reds rose up and gave a battle cry.

From the other side of the valley, howling and shrieking added to the noises of thunderous footsteps. Mushroom pikmin loped and sprinted into the canyon, at least four puffstools among them. They shrieked and howled, but simultaneously rose in a feral bellow as the largest of the puffstools bristled in anticipation, eyeing the reds from the other side of the canyon.

Both sides closed on one another, mere seconds from striking. The spectralid, panicked, rose into the air and quickly flew away.

Not a second later, the battle began, and many were dead.

--

"Yeer?" Lear said to his companion quickly. They were away from the main group, talking to only one another in hushed voices.

"Yes?"

"I think…I think we may have made a mistake leaving the Brush, Yeer."

"Wha…" Yeer was shocked. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" Lear said slowly. "I mean, look what's happened to us. We're running around talking to pikmin of all sorts of different colors, fighting monsters and zombies, and walking through dangerous, scary forests."

"And…well…you think that's bad?"

"_Dangerous_…" Lear said again, slowly. "_Scary…Forests._"

"Well, um, I think you kind of have to look at it in perspective."

"Perspective?" Lear asked dryly. He had always made his friend out to be a bit of a hard-working simpleton, but 'perspective'?

"Well…We're protecting the Brush, aren't we? We're trying to keep it safe."

"We're not soldiers, Yeer, we're…well…workers."

"From what I remember, you didn't do very much working—"

"Oh, just _listen_, damnit!" Yeer was shocked by his friend's outburst. "This isn't what we were meant to do in life, man, I just know it. We're not heroes, we're just…people. Yellows are just people, after all—why didn't we just stick to our little bit of peaceful land instead of coming out into the big world of war and danger?" As he said the words, the mushroom pikmin that had spoken to him directly still haunted his thoughts. He shuddered.

"Lear," Yeer said determinedly, "You can't look at it like that. We're trying to guard the Brush from a very great threat. If we don't succeed, we may not have the Brush at all. We can't let that happen. You know that."

"Yeah…" Lear said slowly. "I…I never thought of you as an adventurer, Yeer."

"Yeah, well…" Yeer paused. "I didn't really either. I mean, you're right, we're just regular people, not heroes. We're not packmasters, or scholars, or commanders. But we can't do anything about that. We're here now, and we can't change the past. We have to make the best of this predict…this predico…this, um…"

"Predicament?" Lear finished, a humorous glint in his eyes.

"…Yeah," Yeer said sheepishly. "You know what I mean." He looked up into the canopy of the Hallowed Forest and chuckled slightly, despite the intimidating environment. "I prefer the Brush to this place…I wonder what's going on back there."

"Yeah, I hope that Lead hasn't become a dictator," Lear said with a chuckle.

They both laughed, and—considering what they had been through—they felt good about laughing.

Something interrupted their laughter—a light sounding, animal-like chirruping noise. Both turned to their left, where the nose emanated from, but neither was prepared for what they saw.

For, indeed, there had been some sort of creature watching them. It was a pikmin…sort of. It had a stem, but other than that…

The bulbmin was rather small for its kind, but that didn't mean it was small. The yellows were far taller than the creature, but it was wider than they were. Lear fell backwards in fright, letting out a yelp of surprise. Yeer leapt back and raised his fists when he saw the bulborb-like features, but lowered when he noticed the creature's young innocent curiosity… and stem.

Around the group of pikmin, bulbmin were emerging from the shadows of the forest, curiously staring at their very-distant kinsmen. The greens looked immediately ready for a fight, but Dorunot, seeing their reaction, quickly waved them off.

In front of Dorunot himself strode a rather large bulbmin—almost the size of a dwarf bulborb—and, clinging to its left flank, an orange pikmin. The orange had a very strange set of traits—it was smaller than all of the assembled pikmin, a little shorter than the average white pikmin, and it had no facial features whatsoever. No eyes, to mouth, no ears, nothing. Its stem, too, was surprisingly short, and instead of a leaf, bud, or flower, the stem was adorned with a small thorn that curved forwards. The orange's limbs ended in not fingers and toes, but instead root-like feelers that couldn't have been any longer than fingers.

"You say this is the one that spoke?" It asked kindly, to no one in particular. The bulbmin it was holding onto gave a low growl in response. "Well, all right, then," the blind orange said. "Azure pikmin! …You are a cobalt pikmin, I believe?"

"Ah, yes, I am Dorunot, a captain of Sanras Varninor," Dorunot replied, a mix of wariness and humbleness evident in his voice. He then broke into a fight of coughs but quickly spoke, "We apologize for trespassing in yo—"

"Oh, there's no need for that sort of thing, friend!" The orange interrupted kindly. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Orow, and I apologize for not having greeted you on the border, but my scouts only informed me of your arrival a few moments ago." He talked loudly—which made sense, considering he had no idea how close to him Dorunot was standing. "Please, allow my people to escort you to a clearing. We are intrigued by your arrival, and you will be treated as honored guests by my people." As he said it, the small bulbmin next to Lear affectionately nuzzled the ne'er-do-well's leg, and he looked on with a mix of fear and interest. "You have nothing to fear from this forest. Please, follow me, esteemed guests!"

And so, with confused expressions, they followed.

--

In some ways, the Hallowed Forest was similar to the Brush. The clearing, for example, was a hill in the middle of the forest that was free of trees and other large vegetation. Bulbmin ran everywhere, exiting small , pikmin-sized tunnels in the ground. The ground was still cast in shadow from the thick canopy above. One thing was clear—this was a much older forest than the Brush.

Yeer was sitting on the end of a large twig, watching as the yellows, blues, and greens set up their seed-pods. Lek said next to him, motioning wildly at passing bulbmin. Any who glanced at him didn't motion back, but gave him curious expressions on their carnivorous features. The pikmin were confident they were carnivorous—they had seen a group of them drag in a few sheargrubs and shearwigs minutes earlier.

Lear strode over to the yellow and the pink, and sat down next to Yeer. "Where's Flewow? Seen him anywhere?" Yeer asked.

Lear's eyes glinted mischeviously as he looked back at his friend. "Who, you mean Fleewoah?" His expression then turned moody and resigned, and he continued, "He's having one of his 'let me gather evidence for the yellow archives' moments. Seems to be having fun, even though he seems to be scared of these bulborb-pikmin hybrid things."

"They seem to have taken to you," Yeer pointed out, remembering the young one that had nuzzled his leg earlier.

"I guess I'm just an awesome person." Lear said nonchalantly.

"That's interesting…" Lek muttered from the other side of Yeer. "Because they just…wont…_pay attention to me!_" He finished with a murmur of frustration as another pack of bulbmin went by, not noticing his wild motions at them.

"Wait, what? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Lear said absentmindedly.

"Oh, shut up."

Lear laughed. "Kidding, dude, kidding!"

"You tend to zone out a lot, though," Yeer said. "Like, remember that time Chieftain Lod asked you to go scout for any pellet posies?"

"Oh, man," Lear said, laughing while shaking his head at the memory. "Don't remind me."

"I haven't heard this one! What happened?" Lek said, stopping his motioning and turning to the other two, interested at the story.

"Well, back in the day…" Yeer began, but then saw Urdnot approaching. "Hey, Urdnot, is something up?" Yeer knew that Urdnot usually only mentioned things that were important to him or their mission, so his arrival was probably significant.

"Dorunot sent me to tell you that the orange wishes to discuss your mission and motives with all of the leaders. He asks for your presence, along with that of Flewow."

"Oh, fantastic, just leave me out of everything…" Lear muttered.

"Tell him we'll be there as soon as I find Flewow," Yeer replied. Urdnot nodded and walked off towards a group of large, bud-stemmed blues. "Well, I'm off to find Flewow. You two want to come to the conference with me?"

"Nah," Lear said, somewhat bitterly. "If Dorunot didn't ask for me, whatever, I'll just stay here, I guess."

"Yeah, same goes for me," Lek said. "I'm not much of a negotiator, and its not like I have anyone to represent."

"Well…Okay, then." Yeer replied. _It'll be weird not going to a conference with them…Guess I better find Flewow_. As he walked off, Yeer felt good that he and his companions were able to let loose a bit with conversation, even in the seemingly hostile environments.

--

**Aw, jeez. Now all I can think of in the fall play is that character Cecil running up to William Shakespeare, chainsaw-bayonetting him, and screaming "THAT ONE'S FOR THE HIGHLIGHT REEL!"**

**Okay, I'm going to go kill RAAM, because I hate him and his effing Kryll. Please drop a review, or I will send Theron Guards after you when you go to sleep.**


	38. The Next Step

**I'M BACK, BABY.**

**Sorry. I was a bit…**_**distracted…**_**by the announcement of Halo 3 Recon, as well as **_**other things**_**, but I'm glad to be delivering moar ONE MUST DIE. We'll start of the chapter with another flashback, and then talk more about the orange/bulbmin relationship (which isn't stated directly, but I hope people will at least make assumptions), and then quite literally get on the move. So, here you go, guys.**

--

"I need a sit-rep _now_," The red officer, Reld Firefist, stated quickly. He was standing with his army on the top of a hill in the middle of the bleak expanse known as the Barrens. To his forces' left was the slightly smaller blue army, its leader—Gandon—in clear sight.

The hill they had chosen was dwarfed by the ant colony looming over them, which had been the final (and immediate) objective of both armies. It needed pacification.

"It's not good, sir," The lowly red soldier said worriedly, his meager leaf blowing in the slight breeze. His voice was almost drowned out by the clacking of hundreds of feet, slowly making their way down from the top of the ant colony. The ants were coming full force—though Reld had been planning to quickly counterattack after the ants were defeated at the foot of their colony, he had eventually decided to pull back onto the nearby high ground with the blues and wait for a (hopefully) final wave of bugs. "We've counted at least seventy drones, fifty regulars, and about forty soldiers in the wave."

The soldier's numbers seemed accurate. Reld spotted many of the smaller than average drones scrambling down the hill; about the length of the bottom half of his leg, the little bugs were a grave threat in large numbers and alongside larger types of ants. Then came the regulars—ants that served multiple purposes. The jack-of-all-trades breed, regulars could fight, gather, and complete other tasks effectively. Finally, the force included soldiers—far more deadly than either of the two types, soldiers had spiked carapaces and limbs, and were much harder to kill than other ants. They had one purpose, which was to kill. Other than flyers and blood ants, the pikmin had not spotted any other types.

The ants thundered towards the bottom of their own hill, and would soon be upon the pikmin forces. "Stand ready!" Reld called to his troops, who looked uneasy as the ants neared. "Rangers, prepare!" The red pikmin armed with stones raised them, soon to throw.

"Ramn, don urdnot!" Across the way, Gandon doled out similar orders in his own tongue. His own stone throwers raised their own projectiles, looking consiberably more prepared for a fight.

There was a short pause as the ants hit the bottom of their own hill. The two captains quickly flashed each other suspicious looks, and then looked back instantly.

"FIRE!"

"HUNDROT!"

Stones flew across the battlefield, and ants collapsed with broken heads and cracked legs. Any rocks that struck the soldier ants seemed to fly off with little effect.

"FIRE!"

"HUNDROT!"

More ants fell, but the main force was almost within charging range now. Out of the corner of his eye, Reld saw Gandon raise his weapon—an ant's mandible—into the air.

"COR URIAS!" The blues roared, charging at the ants. Reld was not to have his own force outdone.

"CHAAAAAARGE! TAKE THEM, REDS!" The red pikmin cheered and launched themselves into the fray.

Both lines engaged the ants with sudden zeal, many creatures from both sides being cut down very quickly. Pikmin were bitten in half, beheaded, and impaled on spikes, while the ants fell from cracked necks, smashed heads, and broken legs.

Reld leapt forwards, taking a long jump past several comrades. He came down on a regular with such force that its spindly spine broke. He used the ant's thorax as a stepping stone, hopping back into the air and over several pairs of snapping jaws. He came down again, this time on the ground, and found himself surrounded by ants on all sides. However, his fellows broke through the distracted ant line behind him and engaged the others near him, giving him a breath of safety.

Suddenly, he was bowled over, having been hit hard from in front of him. It had knocked him over onto the ground, where he landed next to an ant's corpse. He felt an open wound on his chest—whatever had rammed into him was sharp.

He looked up and saw a massive soldier ant looming over him, its armor gleaming in the sunglight. Its black eyes looked down at him emptily and he saw that the dwarf bulborb-sized ant's mandibles were bloodstained. It brought up one of its six spiked legs, and brought it down towards his head.

Reld Firefist screamed in despair.

"This is all very…startling." Orow sat there on a twig, his rootlike fingers steepled together. Towering over him was a fairly large bulbmin. "I have never heard of such creatures before…The thought of their existence is very disturbing."

Geer, Flewow, Yeer, and Dorunot, sitting nearby, waited to hear the orange pikmin's verdict on the matter. Whether he would lend them soldiers or not was what they were wondering.

"However…I fear I can lend you little assistance." _Damn._ "Every orange pikmin is needed here for the moment, as we are at our highest population level in a long, long time…Ever since we were attacked by the crimson pikmin, I believe."

Dorunot smirked. "I am glad to hear your population is returning towards its old level. We…blues…" He said, frowning as he used the red name for his kind, "Have not forgotten the cruelties of the crimsons either."

"I have a feeling," Orow continued, paying little heed to Dorunot's remark, "that I can lend you at least a little help. I can send you off with three hunting packs of bulbmin. I think you will find them to be most helpful…they are some of our best. Remarkable trackers, hunters, and warriors alike."

"We are honored by your generosity." Dorunot, as well as the others, smiled, though the orange could not see (obviously, since he lacked facial features, one of which was eyes).

"Oh, do not say such things. If what you say of these 'ants' is true, then anything short of some help would be shameful. I am only doing my duty as a pikmin."

"We assure you that this is a worthy cause."

"And please, feel free to stay here as long as you like. We have not had true guests in a very long time, as most beings come here will ill will…"

_I would hate to be considered hostile by these forest-folk_, Yeer thought. It was no wonder people feared the forest.

"That is a grand offer, but I fear that we must be on the move," This time it was Flewow who spoke, not Dorunot.

"I am sorry to hear that. Nevertheless, I wish you good fortune on your journey."

"Thank you, Orow." Flewow said graciously.

"We won't forget your kindness." Yeer added, having said something for the first time since he described the Barrens.

"Yes, we won't forget this. Let me assure you, my friend, that you have friends to the North. If you should ever need to leave your forest, you will be welcome." Dorunot finished for the various representatives.

"Thank you, Captain, but I have a feeling we will be staying here for a long, long time." Something about the orange pikmin's remark gave Yeer the impression that orange pikmin did not like to consider the worst-case scenario.

--

The visiting pikmin colors were mobilizing to leave. Well, most of them, anyway.

"Bye, little guy. Catch a few bugs for me." Lear affectionately rubbed a bulbmin's nose. The bulbmin let out a yip of happiness.

"Oy! Lear! Hate to stop you getting to know the locals, but we gotta go!" Lek impatiently called to his friend from the very back of the departing caravan of seed-pods. Lear turned to him and nodded. He then turned back to the bulbmin, gave him a final pat on the head, and ran after the pink pikmin. The bulbmin looked on after him as a second bulbmin walked up beside him, gazing after the bipedal pikmin. The newcomer let out a series of barks that had an interesting translation.

"_Straightspines are weird. Odd to think we were like them once._"

--

Traveling with the bulbmin soon was very odd, but after a few days all of the pikmin began to get used to it. The energetic creatures ran all about the caravan, barking and howling to one another. Whenever the pikmin troupe stopped, they would run off, and would eventually return with some sort of carcass that they would then hurriedly eat—a bizarre practice in the eyes of the pikmin.

Another strange thing was the fact that they didn't get in a seed-pod at the end of the day, but they were always waiting in the morning. Not even Flewow knew the reason behind that. Lek was able to offer his own theory, however: "How in the name of the forefathers do you expect them to get in a seed-pod? They don't have any bloody _arms_."

They had exited the Hallowed Forest now, and were headed west. They had entered a land that reminded Yeer of the very beginning of the journey, when they had traveled through tall grasses that separated green and yellow territory. The primary difference, however, was that the grass was of a different type—it was about two feet tall, towering over the pikmin, and it was a yellowish color.

"So, Flewow…Where exactly are we headed?" Yeer asked one day. His legs felt like rubber from all the walking, and he had decided he might was well know where he was headed.

"I was beginning to wonder when someone would ask me that," Flewow said; he sounded like he was relishing explaining his plan. "You see, we're now going to double back towards the Brush, while making several more visits along the way."

"Do they have anything to do with _that _thing?" Yeer asked, pointing towards a massive formation of earth that had been noticeable ever since they had left the Hallowed Forest. It was, in truth, a very small mountain—but to a pikmin, it was beyond gargantuan.

"Yes, actually. You see, the ground in our direct path is actually unpassable."

"Isn't that going to…um…be a problem?"

"Well, it would be, in normal circumstances…" Flewow's eyes gleamed. "But the next part of our journey will take us _underground_."

"Underground? You mean…beneath that giant thing?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Directly underneath that mountain is one of the most spectacular kingdoms known to the entire spectrum…the King's Mountain."

Yeer was dumbstruck; he had heard many stories about the place, and many assumed it to be a legend. "That's where the…"

"The purple pikmin reside, yes." Flewow said. "From what I understand, they are now in their fourth dynasty." He paused, and then said, "Of course, before we get there, we'll have to pass through the Land of Autumn, which is also considered purple territory."

"And then what? I mean, after King's Mountain?"

"Believe me, Yeer, I know what I am doing. But you don't want me to ruin the excitement by telling you everything _now_, do you?"

--

**Review for Great Justice**


	39. Questioning of Management

**Here's another one…hope you like it. There was initially something at the beginning of the chapter concerning Lear and Yeer, but I thought the scene was too comical and took away the atmosphere of the rest of the chapter, so I removed it.**

**The first section of the chapter happens in the past (straightforward enough), like some of the other things we've seen. And don't worry—pretty soon we'll be seeing things happening in the Barrens in present day. The second part of the chapter is, well…you'll see.**

--

Flod glared at into the gloom surrounding him. The ant colony's interior was dark and cramped—not a good combination, expecially when it was inhabited by such dangerous hostiles. The red captain was leading a strike team deep into the core of the hive, hoping to find some sort of weakness in its foundations. The blues had sent a strike team of their own, but obviously the reds had not stayed with their 'allies'.

The air inside the hive smelled like death—which, after all, made sense. The strike team of fifteen had already lost two soldiers to ant ambushes, and Flod wished that he could truthfully say that he expected no more losses.

"This place gives me the creeps."

"_Everywhere_ gives you the creeps."

"Quiet back there! Do you wish to bring the whole insect population down on us?" Flod's nervousness had morphed into aggressive annoyance, and he lashed out at the two chatty footsoldiers with such fury that they cowered and instantly stopped talking.

"I wonder how those blues are doing…" another soldier murmured.

"Probably all dead by now."

"One can only hope." Most of reds chuckled at this.

"I said _quiet_! Silence yourselves before I do it myself!" Flod angrily shoved a nearby comrade, almost causing him to fall over. Flod was not very high on the ladder—he had yet to earn an honor name from exceptional finesse or bravery in battle—and he was determined to make sure that making a finishing blow to these 'ants' (as well as escaping their home alive) would be the deed that earned him a secondary name, as well as honor.

He was faced with a dilemma; he needed to continue downward, deeper into the colony, but he did not want to risk forgetting the way to the top. Still, there was the possibility that the blues had already delved far deeper—and Flod wasn't about to let his strike team be bested by _gillspeakers_.

Flod twitched. He had heard something. "Hold," He said, holding up his hand. None of the other pikmin were able to see it in the gloom, but they certainly heard their squad leader. They paused, looking around cautiously.

"What is it, sir?" His second in command, Led, said worriedly. The other pikmin was young—hell, he wasn't even an officer yet. He still had a leaf.

"I heard something." They stood there in the pressing darkness for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for any movement nearby. After a long time, Flod was about to tell them to proceed, when.

_Clack, clack, clack._ "Oh, no."

"Warriors, prepare for combat!"  
--

Geer frowned; this was…unexpected.

He stood there, staring across the ring of gathered pikmin, at one of his own kinsmen—Fleer, a bud green who had been in the caravan since it had first set out from the Great Plains.

"You heard me, _Packmaster_," Fleer said, his voice riddled with contempt. He was silhouetted against the sun, which was not quite yet setting. "What is your response?"

Geer had known about the rumours of discontent in his own pack, but he hadn't thought that a fellow hunter would question his authority as the pack's Alpha.

Geer's already scowling face turned even more grim. "You would have our pack turn back and head back to our homeland. That is a betrayal. We made an agreement, Fleer, and the last I can remember, our people do not _cheat_ their way out of bargains."

"Bargains with _what_!?" Fleer retorted. "_Yellows?" _He diverted his gaze to the gathered crowd of greens, blues, and yellows. Many in the audience glared at him, while others, not wanting to meet his vengeful gaze, quickly looked away. "A bunch of gatherers, common beasts, and former powers shouldn't even be able to try and make bargains with us."

Lek, in the audience, attempted to step in and stop them, but a green warningly held out his hand to stop the pink pikmin. "These are green matters," The hunter said quickly, and Lek slowly nodded and stopped, though—like most of the audience—he was itching to stop what could easily become bloodshed.

"They performed well in the Great Hunt. They have proven themselves equals." Geer's hissing response only infuriated the other green even more.

"I have heard _enough _of these _excuses_!" Fleer roared at the top of his lungs. "If you still stand behind your idiotic agreement with a bunch of weaklings, then meet my challenge!"

This angered Geer. He snarled, his large fangs fully bared. "If you will not be moved by reason, then I shall not hesitate to cut you down."

Then, almost simultaneously, the two greens threw themselves at each other.

It was rather like the almost universal contests of strength in every pikmin realm, only with several differences. The first being that, instead of being a contest of strength, this was a contest of agility and striking speed—the two would feint at each other, circle one another, leap and dive—and one blow could kill. So far, none had been exchanged. Instead of throwing punches and stems, their fangs were choice weapons, cutting through the air in an attempt to mortally wound the other combatant.

Geer had to admit that Fleer was good. Fleer was slightly larger than Geer himself, and was almost as fast. However, being a bud pikmin, the other hunter's movements were a bit more sluggish, and Geer knew he would tire much faster. The two were blurs of motion, occasionally stopping to glare at each other, before continuing.

In the audience, Yeer, Lear, and Flewow stood together nervously. Was their war about to take the life of one of their allies?

Also in the audience were Dorunot and Urdnot. Dorunot watched every maneuver, muttering in gillspeak to Urdnot. Urdnot nodded in response, watching the fight with almost sadistic interest.

The two continued to battle, though no blows had been exchanged. Until, quite suddenly, one of them spotted an opening and took advantage of it.

Fleer grinned as he saw his opponent beginning to sidestep left, and he outstretched his foot. Geer hit it, and looked as if he was about to fall on his side, but brought his arms down to support him as he rolled to the side. However, he was not able to dodge his opponent fully; Fleer lunged forward and brought back his head, raising his fangs.

A small cut was visible on Geer's right shoulder. He paid it no heed, perhaps not even knowing of its existence.

On his feet now, he saw Fleer come at him in an attempt to score a second hit. As the bud green raised his fangs high into the air to stab downward, Geer outstretched his hand, grabbing his opponent by the very bottom of his stem with his right arm. However, his right arm became exposed in the process, and Fleer's left tooth cut open a second wound on the bottom of Geer's forearm.

Geer placed his left hand around Fleer's neck, grabbing him tightly. Fleer gasped as his airway was cut off, but worse things would soon befall him.

Holding his adversary's flexible neck in place, Geer pulled Fleer's stem to the right.

There was a sickening ripping sound as it broke, hanging onto Fleer's head by only a thread of flesh. Fleer let out a roar of pain, but it was cut off as he took in another big gulp of air.

Geer has sunk his teeth deep into Fleer's torso, quickly pulling them out, leaving two gruesome puncture wounds in his wake.

Fleer stumbled backwards, his speed and finesse gone instantly. He hit the ground hard, taking in his last breaths as he looked up at the figure of Geer, towering over Fleer's prone form.

"Villanous cur!" Fleer sputtered, his life fleeting. "You doom our entire pack to servitude alongside…al…"

Fleer never finished. A deathly silence loomed over the caravan as the sun began to set.

--

**A duel. I hope it was interesting for you folks.**

**Oh, and if any of you are interested in the Haloz, I've started my first story there, called 'Multiplayer Chronicles: Ghost Town' (part of Obsidian Thirteen's well-known series). Nobody has reviewed (or really read it yet), and its in need of some feedback, so I implore you to check it out.**


	40. Sacred Ground

**117 REVIEWS. YAY FOR HALO REFERENCES.**

…**Anyhow, sorry. Theater stuff, Gears 2's release, and essays all chainsaw-bayoneted me simultaneously, so…well…yeah.**

**Speaking of Gears, I actually-sort of-kind of-started a fan fiction about it. Its right here on the site, in the Gears section, called 'Gears of War: Time to Remember'. Check it out if you're interested, though I will warn you that there are levels of over-the-top cursing and gore in it in true Gears-fashion.**

**Sorry this chapter is kind of short…**

---

The multi-color caravan continued onwards. They were now moving down a long slope—a high hill that was the very edge of non-purple territory. Once they got to to the foot of the hill, they would be in the Sacred ground of the 'violets', as the blues called them.

None of the yellows in the caravan—not one—had ever met a purple. They'd all heard the stories, of course, but they'd never actually interacted with one of the mountain folk. A proud and open, yet fairly confined people, many stories describing the purples and their kingdom were the stuff of legend.

The first purple the caravan would encounter was a little…_different _than the yellows were expecting.

The second the the pikmin at the very front of the caravan—a blue—set foot on one of the Autumn leaves at the bottom of the hill, something stopped him. That something was a call from the top of a nearby rock.

"OY! Halt, an' whatnot!"

The caravan's attention was instantly focused on the single figure on the top of the rock, who wasted no time in hopping off of it and landing squarely on the ground in front of the caravan, shaking the very ground underneath him. The stocky, bulky purple pikmin stood there like guardian force, standing in front of the massive, multicolored crowd. Though he was leafbearer, the haired pikmin still dwarfed the pikmin standing near him.

"Ahm…" He said in the typical purple brogue. "Pardon me fer askin'…but why are there so many of yeh? What business brings yeh to our sacred ground?"

There was an awkward silence. Flewow, who had quickly made his way to the front of the crowd, was at a disadvantage. "Er…pardon me, but do you think it might be possible to repeat that?"

"Agh! Can't yeh understand what I'm telling yeh?" He purple said. "State yer business!"

"Oh. I see." Flewow cleared his throat. "We come with tidings of a grave menace from the Barrens."

The purple paused. "Oh. That sounds… bad." Then, after quick contemptlation, he grunted. "I take it yeh'll be wantin' to get under the mountain, then?" Flewow nodded, to which the response was another grunt. "Well, welcome to purple territory, anyhow. It seems pretty obvious that yeh don't mean any harm. Besides, no offense, lads…" He said, chuckling as he looked over the audience, "But I think we could take yeh." He then turned and motioned back to the dozens of onlooking pikmin. "Well, yeh might as well follow me. I'll take yeh to the grand entrance, and then yeh'll get a _real _welcome." He chortled to himself.

Yeer and Lear exchanged glances. Lek, standing nearby, muttered to them. "I gotta admit, I like this guy's style."

---

**…Okay, so its REALLY short. I'm sorry. Uhm…if it makes you feel better—actually, I'll save that announcement for next time, hmm? *get ready for a special surprise next time, guys! Just make sure to remind me about it!***

**IN OTHER NEWS, someone mentioned that the King's Mountain sounds a [censored] like Moria in LotR. And…well…the purples and the dwarves, as you can probably tell, will have a LOT in common.**

**R & R for great snowballin'-metaphorical justice!**


	41. The King

**New Character, new Realm, New Announcement!!**

---

It took a long time for them to pass though the purple pikmins' Sacred Ground, a sloping region blanketed by falling, autumn leaves. It had been almost a day, and their stocky guide had constantly been asking questions, some of which had been so influenced by his accent that none of the other pikmin had been able to understand him. He seemed like an amicable fellow, but he overestimated the energy of his companions—they couldn't keep up conversation forever.

Yeer kept feeling his gaze pulled up to the towering mountain above him, which had a peculiarly white top—though its peak wasn't visible, since it was shrouded in clouds. The massive mountain cast the entire Sacred Ground in shadow, and Yeer had never seen anything even close to the gargantuan mountain's size.

As they turned the corner around a large tree stump, Yeer spotted a massive hole in the very bottom of the mountainside. Listening to the purple guard's inquiry about nectar in the back of his head, he also noted that there were about sixteen more purple pikmin idly standing about the entrance way.

Their guide made a grunting noise, for the umpteenth time. "Here we are!" He called to the caravan, motioning them forward. They strode across the ground in front of them, and were well aware that all of the entrance's guards were staring at them. A single guardsmen trotted out to meet them. He was one of the only ones that had a bud.

"Whats all _this_, then?" He asked the first purple they had met.

"These travelers want to speak with the King."

"That's a, ah, _Bold_ request," The bud-purple said. The two purples exchanged glances and then began laughing—whatever the joke was, it was introverted. "But obviously we can't just let these many lads inside the Kingdom without proper authorization. Regulations," He finished, turning to the nearby Flewow.

"Agh!" The first purple said in contempt. "It's a time-o peace! Obviously they're not coming with hostile purposes! Let 'em in and give 'em some hospitality, I say!"

"I agree," the bud-purple said, "But I can't take any chances, laddie." He turned to Flewow again—who he'd obviously recognized as a leader. "You should bring yer leaders with me, inside. But the rest will have to stay out here."

"I understand," Flewow said tiredly. He was exhausted from having talked to the other purple all day. Geer, Flewow, Lek, Yeer, Lear, and Dorunot—all standing nearby—heard this, and were already moving forward when Flewow motioned to them. There was one exception—Lek stayed where he was, eliciting a curious glance from Lear—but Lek held up his hand, and had clearly decided to stay.

"Hopefully, his Majesty won't already be dealin' with some problem or other," the bud-bearing purple said to Flewow. "So yeh'll be able to get down to whatever business yer here for." The leaders looked back at their silent subordinates, standing on the other side of the bunched purple guards, as they walked into the cavern. "But, if not, I don't think yeh'll be too bored explorin' the rest of the mountain."

The group walked several more feet down the cave, which then opened up. As the foreigners looked around, they couldn't help but gasp.

The interior of the first room was incredibly massive—stretching more than twenty times an Emperor Bulbax in length, and four times in width. Its height matched about five bulbaxes, and the entire open cavern was illuminated in blue light emanating from peculiar mushrooms growing in on the sides of the room—their population was kept under control, and they were only allowed to exist around the room's edge so as to keep it lit. Purples moved all about the open room, moving this way and that, talking to each other and carrying deceased bulborbs, unbroken eggs, and—most interesting of all—the remnants of humanity—small trinkets from a long-dead age. In between the luminescent glowstems were large holes, which undoubtedly led to other caverns. "Main hall," their new guide said, motioning around the massive room. "The passage to his Majesty's chambers is directly on the other side."

And so it was that the unlikely group made its way across the expanse of the room, receiving curious stares from passing purples. Lear gasped in awe as he saw six of the Kingdom's natives pass by, toting a relic of peculiar design—in truth, a roll-on deodorant container. The fact that six purples alone could lift it, much less _carry _it, was beyond impressive.

A large crack in the stone wall on the other side of the cavern—when they finally reached it—was their path. The purple continued on through it, and didn't even have to stoop his head—it was big enough for him, easily. The rest followed behind him, and as they walked forward through the slowly ascending tunnel, they heard voices emanating from father up.

"Have they reached the first shaft?"

"No, yer Majesty. We've got a couple o' lads stationed by the entrance as spotters, and we know that they're down there, but we haven't seen any activity. Makes you wonder what they're up to."

"It does. And the scouting team?"

"We haven't seen any of them since they went down, your honor. I suspect an ambush."

"Hmph. Seems typical. Tremors, missing scouts, oddly mundane activity…If they really are making a move, we'll be there to stop 'em."

The tunnel opened up into a room about the size of an Emperor Bulbax, but two purples blocked the way in. However, as they saw the purple and the other colors of pikmin coming, they moved out of the way and let the group pass by.

The room had four purples standing to attention on each side, and at the far end was a small platform that basically constituted a single step up for a pikmin. Atop of the platform was a relic—in truth, the shattered side of a clay bowl—that was shaped, quite fittingly, like a throne. In this throne was a pikmin that was big even for purple standards—broad shouldered, muscular, and regal. He was calmly addressing a bud purple standing a short distance from the platform elevating his throne.

The throned purple noted the newcomers quickly, but said nothing as they approached. The purple that had been guiding the group of foreigners suddenly kneeled forwards, resting on one knee—Flewow, Lear, Yeer, Dorunot, and (somewhat grudgingly) Geer followed his example.

"Noblest King," the purple said humbly, "I have brought a group of travelers leading a massive convoy. They requested your audience."

There was a brief silence, which cut out when the kingly purple chuckled to himself and brought his left hand up to his chin. "Well, what have we here, then? Yellow, green, and blue." He paused before making a dismissive gesture towards them with his left hand. "Up, up, enough amazement. I bet yeh didn't come see me to bow."

The five hastily got to their feet, feeling the eyes of the rest of the room upon them. "Its been a while since we've had any overground travelers. Welcome."

"Thank you for your hospitality, honorable king," Flewow said. "I fear that we've come with grim tidings."

"Well, let's hear them." The king said, relaxing back into his 'throne'.

"Something grim is happening in the Barrens. Some sort of deadly creature has appeared."

"Deadly creature? I apologize for the, ah, simplicity of my questions," The king said, "But do yeh think yeh could explain?"

"Certainly, honorable king. I have a feeling that a few of my companions can give you all of the information I need." Flewow glanced back at Yeer and Lear, who stepped forward. The king watched them, interested.

"And you are…?" He asked.

"I am Yeer, and that's Lear, your Majesty." Yeer said.

"Well, then, let's—oh!" The king stopped quite suddenly, and then continued slowly. "I forgot to tell you who _I_ am. Name's King Purle the Bold."

---

**You've seen the new place, you've seen the newcomer…but where's the announcement? I'll tell you then, shall I? Drum Roll please…**

**…**

**One Must Die, the fanfiction you are currently reading, is going to have a sequel! …Or, more accurately, two sequels. IT'S A TRILOGY!!!1!1one!!1! Plus, I'll be starting a fresh new fic related to this one in a very, very short period of time, that explains some of the Expanded Universe of the 'Founding of a Species' trilogy, as I call it. **

**Of course, this obviously wouldn't be where it is now, and it sure as hell wouldn't have two planned sequels, if it wasn't for all of you guys. So thanks, and rock on, readers!! 'Til next time!**


	42. The Prince

**Yeah, sorry. I have no excuse for the tardiness of this update. You can thank my most recent anonymous reviewer (Hurry Up) for his/her "GET A MOVE ON!!" review, which has gotten me back on track faster than a slap to the the face. So...you have him/her to thank if you were waiting for an update.**

**The Winter season is officially over, so now my only extracurricular role is clambering in the rafters of the Theater to rig up lights for the Musical. That means I have a lot more free time, probably, so hopefully I can start updating faster and faster. Anyhow, this chapter has a new...element. I hope everyone likes it.  
**

---

Just as King Purle introduced himself, the ground beneath the pikmins' feet began to shake. It was so unexpected that Flewow nearly fell over, and Dorunot looked like he was about to collapse, trying to use his one hand to support himself—fortunately, however, Yeer leapt over to him and supported him, keeping him on his feet.

"A tremor!" King Purle said after the ground had stopped shaking. He turned to the first purple he had been talking to and quickly commanded, "Summon the watchmen." The purple bowed and dashed out as fast as its legs would carry him. He then turned to the visitors and said quickly, "I fullheartedly apologize, lads, that your issue may have to wait a bit. We've got a bit of a situation 'ere."

"What is it, your Majesty?" Dorunot asked after a cough.

""We've got reports of bizarre activity deeper into the mountain. That tremor probably means somethin' just passed through the shaft leading in and out of purple territory. So, we need to investigate."

"Sire!" A purple ran in from the entryway—oddly enough, not the same one who had so recently left. "The guards are reporting two deaths by the shaft, but whatever engaged 'em is now retreating!"

King Purle slowly rose from his throne and strode forward. "If they think the can jus' waltz in here and kill two of my subjects without punishment, they're mistaken! Summon the battalions, we're going after it."

"Yes, milord."

The purple who had escorted the foreigners in asked, "Sir, do you think it could be…?"

"There certainly is a possibility." King Purle said, striding past them.

"Your Majesty, is there any way we can assist you?" Dorunot inquired.

"These are purple matters, newcomer," He said, "But I will not disallow you from joining with us on the field of battle, especially if our enemy is what I think it is."

"Then we _shall_ join you." Dorunot said. "We fought together in the Unification War, and we will fight together again."

Flewow nudged Yeer and gave him a glance that said, 'agree'. "Us too," Yeer blurted. "We will help." Yeer tried not to think about how many yellow lives he might have just endangered.

King Purle turned, his eyes glinting with happiness, as he turned to the newcomers. "It will be a pleasure. If you have any forces, now is the time to summon them. I must go see to my own troops." With that, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Dorunot turned to Yeer. "Let us go summon our respective brigades, then." He then turned to Geer, and asked, "Packmaster, will you be joining us?"

"With forces? No." Geer hissed, something that almost sounded apologetic in his voice. "My pack is nearing a breaking point, and I do not wish to stress it by taking them into another fight. But I will personally join you."

They began to head back towards the opening in the mountain to gather their troops. Lear and Yeer quickly approached Flewow. "Flewow, you better explain," Yeer said quietly.

"Well…" Flewow trailed off. He didn't seem eager to say anything.

"Flewow," Yeer repeated, more sternly. This time Flewow sucked it up, and nodded.

"It is possible that a Wraith is attacking."

Lear stopped dead in his tracks. "…You're not serious?" He asked.

"I'm afraid I am, Lear. They do, contrary to a good deal of yellow belief, still exist—they conceal themselves deep in the earth to try and hide from us, but they will occasionally rise up and attack—most commonly, they engage the purples."

Every yellow pikmin knew the stories: long ago, they (the yellows), along with blues, reds, whites and purples, had been enslaved by the wraiths. Wraiths had controlled most of the known world, and used pikmin for their own personal gain, keeping the smaller beings in line with fear and intimidation. After a series of squabbles between the wraith types (the most common one being Waterwraiths) transformed into all out war between the different subspecies, and they also began to use pikmin as soldiers. However, the pikmin colors rose up and rebelled against their masters, and were able to gain key victories against both sides in the civil war. Eventually, the wraiths united again to attempt to put down the largely underestimated pikmin threat, but by that time it was too late. This conflict,--the first true war in pikmin history—had many names, ranging from the Uprising (as it was called by primarily whites and purples) to the Unification War (as it was known to the yellows and blues) to the Freedom War (as it was known to the reds). The now officially allied and unified pikmin colors of red, white, yellow, purple, and blue agreed to slay all and any wraiths upon sight, and almost all of the wraiths were hunted down and defeated. However, some managed to retreat deep into the earth, where it was assumed that they perished. However, the purples—who colonized their mountain primarily due to a feverous pursuit of the wraiths—had engaged wraiths a few times, but had easily contained them.

It seemed as though, however, the containment had not been entirely effective.

"Let's get ready to fight."

---

After the events that had taken place in blue territory, Yeer was not very happy about venturing deep underground. From what he'd heard of purple culture from Flewow, however, he would have to if he wanted to curry the favor of the purples and their king. Offering soldiers to assist the purples with an investigation of the tremors reported earlier seemed to be the best way to show their cooperative nature at this point. But this wasn't looking much like an investigation; it looked like preparation for a large battle.

Yeer knew that he was going to be sending yellows into battle, and he felt that he could not send his people into a warzone if he did not at least accompany them. His thoughts drifted to his followers…many had been born on the actual voyage around the known pikmin territories, and had no idea what the Brush was like—other than their shared memories with the yellow seed-pod, of course.. _Still_, Yeer thought_, it must be a very peculiar reality for the newborns._

Not anxious to put a surplus of lives in danger, Yeer had brought a mere twenty other yellows with him—they were there to show support only; as he had learned, the yellow pikmin weren't known as warriors. Lear was not coming with him on this journey—he had not openly said he did not want to go into unknown underground territory, but Yeer knew from his eyes that Lear had not completely recovered from his near-death experience at the hands of the mushroom-min. Lek, too, was not present; "Pinks", he had muttered, "Aren't exactly the 'underground' sort."

To Yeer's surprise, however, Flewow had insisted on coming. He stood near by, looking half-anxious, half excited; there was something about the purples and their culture that made Flewow never want to abandon their great halls—to study as much as possible during his stay. Apparently, that included more dangerous parts of purple life; Yeer guessed he expressed such interest because the purples were usually considered little more than mythical, and information on them was not common in the Brush.

Dorunot had brought forty blue pikmin with him, who stood to sharp attention in front of the Captain's watchful eyes. Geer stood nearby, the only green in the crown; he was not eager to strain the demands of his pack, who had almost mutinied him recently. Yeer had already seen discontented, suspicious glances being shot at his own person from some of the green pikmin, but he was not concerned about a full-fledged insurrection—Flewow had assured him that, unless Geer made another controversial decision, his packmates would stand by him with no protest.

Then, there were the purples. There were enormous, powerful beings; large and barrel chested, with the strength of many weaker pikmin. Yeer looked over at one of the assembled _fifty _warriors (an awe-inspiring sight) and had no doubt that the leaf-bearing purple could have hefted him up with one hand and thrown him a good distance.

Yeer had heard the stories, of course. It was known that his now-deceased Chieftain—Chieftain Lod—had been familiar with the purples. It was known that, in one point in history, the mushroom pikmin had invaded the purples' Sacred Ground; tales of purples ripping off limbs and breaking enemies' spines over their raised knees ran rampant through most kingdoms from the brief conflict. The mushroom pikmin had never again attempted an invasion of purple territory.

At the head of the purple force stood King Purle the Bold, flanked on each side by a pair of bud purples—a small segment of his Royal Guard. Another bud-possessing purple with a small mark above one eye and a rock slung around its neck on a chain of grass stood nearby, hands crossed over its large stomach. It was slightly smaller than the king—but, seeing as the king towered a head taller than most purple pikmin (who were very big themselves), this didn't in any way insinuate shortness.

They stood outside a large hole, leading down into a murkier part of the mountain. The four colors stood there silently as the purple king motioned for the other leaders to come speak with him. Geer, Dorunot, Flewow, and Yeer made their way over; in the corner of his eye, Yeer saw Urdnot watching from the middle of the blue frontline.

The King cleared his throat and began speaking, his voice riddled with the purple accent. "Are y' ready, then?" The others nodded; the King's eyes gleamed. "Gotta say, lads, we appreciate the help. Nothing like fighting alongside friends, eh?" He laughed, and the other leaders showed their agreement. Yeer joined the laughter and nodded nervously while Dorunot smirked, holding back a fit of coughs, and Geer smiled toothily. For all his xenophobia, Yeer noted that Geer was at least able to recognize other colors as worthy allies. He was much less afraid of the green Alpha as he had been at their first meeting (which, of course, had been under _very _different circumstances).

Being in the presence of the king, Yeer noted, was a bit stunning; the massive pikmin seemed to dominate all conversation. "Well," King Purle continued, "Me and my, ah, second in command here," He motioned over his shoulder to the purple with the rock necklace, "Would like to lead the advance. Like I said, we 'preciate the help, but…"

"We understand, your Highness," Dorunot said, throwing the smaller purple a glance. "Is this your heir?" Yeer didn't know what Dorunot meant, but Flewow did, as was noted by a jolt of understanding as he perked up and glanced at the smaller purple as well.

King Purle's eyes gleamed with pride. "Yes! This is m'son, Ponder." Ponder bowed, his necklace of stone hitting his chest with a muffled thud. Yeer noted that, if he had tried the thing on, it might have injured his neck; the young purple's hair, he also noticed, was completely black at its very tip. "I'm bringin' 'im with me on this one—want him to get used t'battle, y'know?" Dorunot nodded understandingly. "So, we know what's happening, then?"

Geer, who had probably wanted to send his hunters out as scouts, nodded. "I will follow behind you. Keep an eye out for these…_Wraiths_." As a green, Geer had probably never heard or seen of the Wraiths until now.

"And I will reinforce the back of the group, and keep my ramn protected in case we require them." Dorunot guessed that 'ramn' meant 'stone-thrower' in the blue language. "I take it that your strike force will accompany me, young Yeer?" He said, struggling to fight back a severe cough.

Yeer nodded, and King Purle cracked his knuckles. "Well, then…" He turned and roared to his soldiers, his voice echoing off the sides of the hollowed-out mountain-tunnel's interior. "Time to go, lads! Follow me!"

He took the lead, striding at the head of his massive army, which began marching behind him. The other pikmin leaders smartly moved out of the way of the purples—otherwise, they might have been crushed.

Yeer and Flewow exchanged a glance. Flewow looked exhilarated. "Let's go!" He said.

**There are three 'military' pikmin colors: the Reds, the Blues, and the Purples. The Blues are a sort of artsy, Lord of the Rings elf-ish group, while the Reds [spoilers!]. The Purples will be coming up next chapter, and hopefully will be eyebrow raisers in combat.**

**More chapters to come!  
**


	43. Wraiths

**Hey, guys. Short notes this time. I may have said this already, but....My Xbox....(sobs) HAS THE RED RING OF DEATH!! WAAAAH! **

**Of course, that also means I'll probably be writing more, so its not tragic. I can live without Halo 3 for a little while...I _think_...**

**Also, the story has now OFFICIALLY broken 200 pages. NICE!!  
**

---

The red pikmin were a terrifying sight to see when on the warpath. They stood in rows of five, marching across the landscape as a single military unit. It was like watching a long snake winding across the ground; their forces moved in unison, and seemed endless. As they marched, they took each step together with impressive discipline, creating echoes that bounced off the steep sides of the small ravine they were moving through.

At the very head of the force stood a single red, its flower blowing in the slight breeze as it looked about suspiciously, and gave a grunt of disdain as he felt the small amount of water in the ravine slosh against the end of his legs. There was no doubt that this commander was nervous about being ordered to take his forces into the heart of enemy territory, but he did his best not to show it. The reds attempted to make themselves out as a type of pikmin that could not feel fear.

Taka, staring down at the red military procession from the tall ridge on the left side of the ravine, knew better than that. A seasoned warrior, Taka knew the crimsons' military doctrine almost as well as that of his own people. He had studied it in order to gain a better understanding (and, therefore, an advantage) of his adversaries. Study of other cultures did not interest the crimsons, who were only focused on their own ways of life; they chose not to exploit this concept of war, and they would pay for it at the hands of their opponents.

As he looked down at the marching crimsons, Taka monitored the expressions on the enemy faces. Some were completely blank, while others occasionally slipped into bored expressions, or nervousness. Good; fear was a useful tool.

In his studies, Taka had learned much about how the crimson pikmin revered courage and discipline. He almost respected them enough to feel regret for what he was about to do. Perhaps if he hadn't seen a azure seed-pod go up in flames as crimson pikmin whooped in approval, perhaps if he hadn't seen his first even squadron of troops butchered by ruthless crimsons, and perhaps if he hadn't then undergone the training required of a religiously-reverent and combat-masterful zealot, he would have shown more mercy than the red pikmin.

But, unfortunately for them, after the events he had been through Taka was not one for mercy. He gave an order to his hidden troops without a hint of sadness. In fact, as per usual zealot-personality, he spoke with no emotion at all.

"Chavlorai. Mara." '_Warriors. Kill.'_

A score of cold-blooded killers like himself complied wordlessly, leaping down from their hiding spots on the ridge, descending on their enemies like vengeful angels.

Screams and blood filled the ravine.

---

Though it was outside of claimed purple territory, the mountain's depths were surprisingly well lit. More of the glowing mushrooms grew randomly in the tunnels, and their numbers were not maintained by the purples—this meant some parts of the tunnels were much brighter than others, due to the random-seeming positioning-tendencies of the mushrooms.

There was a lot of area to be lit, however. The tunnels were gargantuan, and each could have fit a gatling groink with no problem. The pikmin force strode through them, on what seemed like a fairly-aimless course.

They had been moving for a long time, so Flewow and Yeer had engaged in a bit of small-talk.

"So…what are Wraiths actually like, Flewow?"

"To be honest, I'm not completely sure," Flewow responded. "There are really only rumors left, but…well…the Wraiths changed in appearance from type to type. But they were all fairly large, and very odd-looking, from what I know. They're also quite scary, I believe."

"Oh." Yeer paused. "You don't seem scared, though."

"Well…" Flewow paused. "I don't have time to be scared. Can you imagine how much information we could find down here? The things we could learn about the purples, and the Wraiths?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"How can you not be excited about this?" Flewow said, sounding astonished. "This entire journey is a nectar-egg waiting to be broken open! Think about it; we yellows are essentially isolated in the Brush, living our own lives in our own little world. We don't know anything about worldy matters in contrast to other pikmin colors! Few yellows would ever be lucky enough to see all the places we've seen—to witness the greens at the great hunt, to see the blue capital, the bulbmin forests, the sacred ground of the purples…this is an adventure that should be relished!"

Yeer smiled at how wanderlusting the recorder was; he reminded Yeer of Chieftain Lod. "You seem more built for this kind of lifestyle than I am, man."

"What makes you say that? You almost sound like you _don't _want to be here."

Yeer sighed. "I don't know." He looked over and met Flewow's curious gaze. "I mean, I realize this is an incredible opportunity, and we're finding out a lot of things that could be useful for the Chieftains back home, but…I kind of think I wasn't built for a life of adventure." Flewow remained silent after this, so Yeer continued. "I don't think I was born to be a leader. I'm a pretty simple pikmin; before all this started, I worked hard, I slept long, and I enjoyed that life. This may be a wonderful opportunity, but it's a big burden, too. Trying to ensure the safety of our people, and all that."

Flewow nodded, though he didn't seem convinced. "Well…My condolences, anyhow. I'm afraid to inform you, Yeer, that you may be wrong about questioning your own will to lead."

"Huh?" Yeer asked.

"I'm surprised you haven't realized it," Flewow said, almost chuckling a bit. "Even though you don't seem to know, the yellows on this journey look to you for leadership before anybody else."

"What?"

"Just think about it," Flewow said, cutting off Yeer's surprised interjection. "Lear, to be honest, can be a bit irresponsible and prone to procrastination. And I may be planning our expedition, but I'm a bit of a recluse, I'm afraid." He chuckled, and continued, "You, however, are the most balanced of our trio. Like it or not, the yellow pikmin view you as their leader."

Yeer paused, not knowing what to say. He looked over his shoulder at the procession of yellows behind him, and then looked away again. _Do I honestly have what it takes to lead?_

Before he could think about the question any more, a thick rumbling emanated from deeper down the tunnel. It was definitely something in the earth, but Yeer could have sworn he heard a very distant noise; a sort of wretched wailing that bounced to his sensitive ears along the sloping sides of the tunnel.

"Agh!" King Purle yelled in recognition from the front of the group. "Onward, lads! We're getting close!"

When he was about to raise his hand and motion his troops onward, there came another noise—or series of noises, more accurately. A heavy slam came from farther down the tunnel, followed by another, and another; massive footfalls. They seemed to be growing louder and louder, and were accompanied by another ominous wail.

Yeer couldn't help it. He gulped.

Purle hesitated, and then called out again. "Hold ground, and get ready! Bastard's coming to us!"

A series of mutters went through the purples, who splayed their legs in defensive stances and raised their fists. Dorunot called out to the blues in his own tongue, and the frontline blues crouched, while the stone-wielders in the back prepared to throw. The yellows stood about nervously, waiting for a command. Yeer looked over at Flewow, and saw the recorder giving him an expectant look.

Yeer sighed, and turned back to the yellows. "Steady," He said to them, unsure of what else to say. To his surprise, they solidified, standing a bit more attentively in their positions.

The pounding was growing louder now, and it seemed to be more rapid. The pikmins' eyes were focused on the blackness ahead, waiting for their enemy to show itself.

What strode out of the darkness was nothing short of dreadful.

The Waterwraith, for that was what it was, was about as tall as seven pikmin standing on top of one another. It gave the appearance of a living, throbbing mass of water, surrounded by a light-violet sheen. Its lack of features added to its physical similarity towards consolidated liquid; it had no organs, and no facial markings on the protrusion that took the place of a neck and head. Stocky protrusions acting as feet elevated its body off of the ground. Its hands, similarly featureless potusions, were tightly gripped around a long-yet-flat wooden handle, which was attached to a wide hunk of wood that was flat on one side, but covered in long, needle-like protrusions on the other side; the pikmin could not have known it, of course, but it was actually a hairbrush. To the pikmin, of course, it was nothing short of a massive weapon.

There was a very loud gasp from Flewow.

Dorunot shouted a command, and the stone-throwers released, hurling at the massive target ahead of them. For once, their organization was their weakness; each and evey stone flew towards the Wraith's torso. It simply raised the brush horizontally, its flat side facing towards the pikmin, and the stones bounced off of it harmlessly.

"Engage!" King Purle roared, and his purples charged forward, but something unexpected stopped their charge.

A second Wraith, slightly smaller than the first one, moved out of the gloom of the tunnel and dropped a large cylinder of rock, hurling it down the length of the tunnel. Wraiths had been known to roll on a pair of such rock-tubes to increase their speed, but without two, one was relatively useless. Therefore, the best that could be done with it was its use as a weapon.

The cylinder slammed into the ground and, with the strength from the throw, began to roll towards the assembled mass of pikmin quite quickly. It was a cunning ploy, and it took the pikmin by surprise; at the speed it was going, it would take out all of the pikmin in a single stroke, splattering them beneath it as it rolled.

Yeer was about to order his yellows to retreat from the object—a hopeless endeavor, at the speed the thing was rolling—when Purle reacted to the situation, giving another command. "Hold!" He roared, and his honor guardsmen complied, coming to a sudden stop in a single line.

Yeer looked on in horror as the cylinder sped towards them, terrified they would be crushed—but he did not know the full strength of purple pikmin. When the cylinder was within arm's reach, the purples charged as one, putting as much force as they could into their unified advance. The cylinder was stopped dead, and the purples grunted before the left side of the line shoved with all their might, sliding the tube around until it was lying up against the wall, out of the way.

Now the pikmin had a clear charge.

"ENGAGE!" Purle roared again, and this time there were no distractions. The pikmin of all colors charged forward at the two wraiths. The now-unarmed one took a few steps back, but the larger one held its ground, brandishing its makeshift weapon.

Five purples who were leading the charge were the first to go. The Waterwraith swung the brush in a sweeping arc, and it slammed into the five pikmin from the side. Two were skewered on the brush's points, and the other three were sent flying into the side of the tunnel, where they hit the rock with loud thuds.

These losses did not stop the advance, however. The rest of the purples thudded forward, and four were caught in another wide swing of the brush. However, the massive swing left the creature's belly exposed, and the purples charged, Purle at their lead. They slammed into its stomach, and the outside layer of the Waterwraith's body suddenly turned a deep purple as it seemed to freeze and stumble backward. Its movements slowed, the purple piled onto it, slamming fists and stems into its torso with zeal.

The weaponless wraith attempted to help its comrade, swinging one of its hands across the top of the toppled wraith's body and sending a few of the purples flying. For its actions, it received an injured hand, and was then caught-dead center in the middle of the next stone-thrower volley. Its outer coating turned a deep shade of purple as well, and it tried to retreat, but its movements were sluggish and weak. A purple leaped from the downed Wraith onto its comrade's body with such force that the impact actually knocked the massive wraith over, and it hit the ground with a thud.

In a sudden burst of energy, the larger of the two wraiths pulled itself upright, and gave a bellow of anger. The noise itself sent the purples around it flying backward, and Yeer felt his bones chilled by the sound. Nevertheless, he lead his yellows forward from the back of the procession, moving past the stone-throwing blues and towards the enemy. They were almost there.

The first of the two wraiths got back up, and brought its brush to bear, bringing it downward in an arc. However, it had clearly been battered by the purples, and the swing was sluggish; the pikmin had the agility to get out of the way with ease. The wraith stumbled forward from the unexpected force of its swing, its head lowered towards the ground.

Then Yeer saw something that startled him. King Purle, with impressive leg-strength, leapt up onto the flat side of the brush, and from there leapt up at the Wraith, bringing his fist up at the Wraith's head.

There was a muffled slam as the King's first impacted, and the wraith's head swung back unnaturally, a small blod of liquid falling towards the ground and splashing against the tunnel. The Wraith's thick coating had been broken, and its inner fluids were now seeping out of the wound.

It paused, its violet layering spasming through a series of purple shades, and raised a hand to its face, curiously inspecting the damage, and wiping its own fluid away. Upon realizing it was bleeding, it suddenly rose up and attempted to move, but the purples would have none of it. They piled onto the beast with roars, bringing it down again. It let out a pained gurgle as it was beaten to death.

Noting that the first Wraith was down, Yeer led his band of yellows past it, and towards the second one, which had grabbed onto the purple who had attacked it first, and proceeded to hurl it across the tunnel. The purple yelled before slamming into the far wall and sliding down silently. The wraith turned its attention to the yellows now gathered before it, and Yeer hesitated.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw King Purle slam his fist into the downed Wraith's stomach, and he spotted Geer among the purples, clawing at the dying creature. Blues were now flooding over it, and among them was Ponder, the purple Prince. If all the other colors were fighting, the yellows would fight too.

"Attack!" He yelled, pointing to the large monstrosity in front of him. The yellows charged, and the wraith responded violently. Its left hand seemed to stretch as it swung its arm into the ground, attempting to squash some of the yellows. A single leaf pikmin was flattened by the fist, but the rest continued, undaunted.

The wraith was essentially unprotected, so the yellows were able to leap up and grab onto the creature without much trouble. They slammed their stems into it, but they were far from purples; the attacks barely even caused a flicker to appear on the protective layering of the wraith.

Yeer looked to his left and spotted the brush that had been the weapon of the first wraith. It had fallen from the monstrosity's hands, and smashed into the ground. A couple of the needle-like parts were now lying, broken, on the ground.

Yeer quickly picked one up, and whirled around, charging at the still-standing Wraith. It shook itself, and most of the yellows on it fell, not with enough force to kill them, but with more than enough to send them reeling. They collapsed on the ground around the wraith. Which let out a deep groan as it raised one of its feet to squash one of the yellows.

It stopped, however, seeing Yeer raise the broken needle and throw it.

The makeshift weapon was far from streamlined, but it wasn't a bad throw by Yeer. The makeshift spear swung through the air, and the sharp end sunk into the Wraith's skin just above its left leg, piercing the outer layer.

The Wraith let out a much more pained groan, before stumbling backwards and attempting to pull the needle out of itself. Liquid squirted from the wound, and the yellows—seeing this—roared and charged again.

Yeer was among them, but he did not attack aimlessly, as they did. He sprinted forward, ignoring the world around him, and made his way to the half-sunk-in needle. He grabbed it in both hands and pushed it as deep as he could into the Wraith's insides. A small amount of liquid flew forwards at him, splashing on his profile. Ignoring it, Yeer twisted the needle left and right inside the Wraith before pulling it out.

This maneuver caused liquid to splurt out everywhere, and the wraith fell to its knees, almost crushing Yeer. Its head, only about an inch higher than he was now, turned to look at him, and Yeer felt his feet getting wet from the spreading pool of liquid beneath him.

With a yell, Yeer lifted the needle again with a forward thrust, and it plunged into the Wraith's neck.

With a final, anguished yell, the wraith turned over on its side, and did not move any more.

---

**LEVEL UP!! YEER'S BADASS EXP. HAS INCREASED +5!!  
**

**Well, anyhow, I hope you liked this new chapter. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!**


	44. Celebration

**Hey guys. Sorry, this one is pretty short...but important.**

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Yeer had been alive for the celebration held in the Brush to give his Chieftain a farewell before he set out for the Barrens. It had been quite festive, and he'd had a very good time, and he'd been able to let loose.

But it was _nothing _like a celebration held by the purples.

The main hall of the purple kingdom was alive and bustling with purples, along with the traveling colors. It was a party unlike anything Yeer had ever seen, or imagined. Purples were gathered around, talking and laughing with one another, or singing songs of merry. In the far corner, a large stone was being thrown about by a group of purples playing some sort of game.

Quite possibly the most unique thing about the party, however, was the sustenance.

"What did you say this was called?"

"The purples call it, 'budwarmer'," Flewow said as Yeer stared down at the glob of blue nectar before him. "It doesn't have any growth qualities like normal nectar, but it apparently makes you feel…" Flewow looked over at the celebrating purples. "…Festive," He finished. "They keep a good many stores of it handy for celebrations like this one.

Yeer could not describe how great the nectar made him feel. He had not drunk very much of it, but it was…incredibly potent. He felt slightly dizzy, but also very good.

Lear had not held back as much as his best friend. Yeer spotted him attempting to show a group of purples a traditional yellow combat stance, only to stumble and fall over. The purples laughed goodheartedly and helped him up, though he didn't even seem to have noticed he'd fallen in the first place.

As Yeer watched contentedly, a massive arm slammed into him on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Once again, congratulations, m'lad!" The King's voice was easily recognizable, and Yeer chuckled.

"W-well, thank you, your m—"

"No need to thank me, my boy! It's me that should thank _you_!" The King laughed heartily. "That was one of the most impressive kills I've seen in a long time!"

"Thanks," Yeer managed to say. "You too…?"

The King laughed. "So, where are we headed next, then?"

Yeer paused. "What, your Majesty?"

"Y'said that you were headed out on some kinda quest!" Purle said. "What, you get too much budwarmer?"

"…I don't think so."

"Well, if you want anymore, go for it! It's all on the house for our esteemed guests!" Purle said, motioning to the massive celebration. "Look, we'll discuss yer quest tomorrow. For now, just enjoy yourself! They say nobody throws parties like we purples do!"

"I can see why, your maj—"

"Well, then!" The King said, shoving Yeer forward into a group of purples, who hefted him up into the air and joyously chanted 'Wraith-killer'. Yeer dizzily looked over and saw the King giving him a thumbs-up.

He was right. The purples sure knew how to celebrate.

---

There was a slight wind making its way across the Barrens. It sent up a fierce maelstrom of dust, which would be unbearable for most species.

Ants, of course, had nothing to worry about. Their eyes were almost as hard as their exoskeletons; the dust could not affect their eyes, though it did decrease their visibility a bit.

A single worker ant made its way across the dunes, searching for some sort of prize to bring back to its colony. Alas, there wasn't anything around; food was growing more and more scarce. As time passed, ants had to travel farther and farther from the colony in search of food.

However, as the ant made its way up a far hill, it saw something. It was very far in the distance, and the dust did obscure the ant's already-short vision to some extent. But once an ant saw food, it would not stop until that food had been secured for its colony.

Slowly, the ant made its way towards what it had seen; the distant treetops of the Brush.

---

**[gasp!]**


	45. Quid Pro Quo

**Hey. My Xbox 360 is still broken, but I played some Halo Wars, and liked it a lot.I would suggest it to any console gamer who likes strategy games...and I'm _not _just saying that because its a Halo game. Its good. Really.**

**Short, I know, but hey--better than nothing, right?  
**

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Night was approaching, and shadows loomed over the forward command center of the Imperial Red Army. The base was officially refered to as the Tombstone, due to the massive group of rocks that formed it. A red seed-pod was perched on the top of a four-foot-high boulder, which was surrounded by other rocks, some taller and more jagged. The group of rocks, which seemed to have been gathered together by natural means, were perched on the top of an eroded slope; at the bottom of the slope was the beginning of a long ravine, which led into a small hole in the canyon that surrounded blue territory. After a campaign to take the southernmost entrance to blue territory failed, due to its heavy fortification and adjacency to the territory of the bestial and hostile bulbmin, the reds had relocated their legions, and were now attempting to invade blue territory through a new entrance—a miserable choke point that they had so far failed to take. If they did take it, of course, they would have direct passage into the blue capitol, and might be able to end the war against the blues much faster. However, they had not made very much progress so far, and had lost many good soldiers.

Berd was not of high rank, nor of high-fame; he was, as the expression went, a "grunt". Little more than cannon-fodder, he had yet to distinguish himself in battle, and having not been promoted) was the lowest of the low. Two paths seemed to be available for Berd to take in life; to be promoted, and possibly become a recognized warrior among the reds, even earning himself a secondary 'honor name'. Or, he could be killed in combat. The latter was, for all reds, far more likely.

As a grunt, Berd often received some of the most mundane missions…such as guard duty. He was sitting on the edge of the incline, next to the bottom of the large rock that was the center of Tombstone, with two other, similarly-lowly soldiers. Fortunately, their shift would soon be over; sunset couldn't be too far off, judging by the rapidly-darkening sky.

"I heard they're sending another garrison," Said the red next to Berd. He'd been the most talkative of the three while they were on guard duty, and frankly, Berd didn't like him very much. He was too hopeful—but it made sense. He couldn't have been older than ten days.

"Yeah? So?" The other red—bigger, and older than the first—commented, tapping his foot as he waited for the trio to be called back to the seed-pod. "Its not like more people are going to do anything. Just gonna be more bodies to fill that ravine."

"Well, maybe they'll send us other stuff!" The younger red said. "Something that can help us take the ravine."

"You _been_ in that ravine, kid?" The second red asked. Berd sensed strain in his voice; incredulousness, maybe.

"…No."

"Well, let me tell you something." The second red got up, and walked up to the smaller one. "If I had to guess if you'd been in that ravine or not, I'd have guessed that. You want to know why? Because you're _alive_."

The younger red scoffed. "People have come back," He retorted.

The older one chuckled darkly. "Yeah. Some." He paused, and pointed out at the ravine. "Yesterday, more than forty pikmin marched down that ravine. Four came back." He paused, and then said, "You go in there, chances are you don't come out."

"Well…what's in there, then?" The kid asked, curious. He really was a child; during wartime, the second a pikmin was pulled from the ground, they shoved him out to the frontline. Not exactly a humane practice, but what were the rank-and-file going to do about it? They sure weren't calling the shots.

"I talked to one of the reds that came back, yesterday." The bigger red said, and Berd found himself listening. "They were walking, and everything was going well. And then, suddenly…"

"What?"

"The blues came," The older red said darkly. "You ever seen a blue, kid?"

"No."

"Thought not. They're monsters, kid; forget what your playmate back at the seed-pod told you. They ain't like the rest of us pikmin." The younger red was obviously starting to become uncomfortable, and the older red seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Don't scare the kid, man." Berd wasn't much of a talker, and he was pretty quiet. Either the older red didn't hear him, or just ignored him.

"First of all, they got _mouths_. Just like most animals you might have seen back home. Makes sense, though—they are animals." The younger red was become more and more frightened by the second. "And they _love_ water. They got this wet skin, like…a wollywog. Clammy and slimy and wet. And they've got these gills, on their neck, and they make this gurgling sound that sounds like a wail—like a Wraith, from the old times. And you think that's bad? We're not just fighting blues. We're fighting _zea_—"

"Don't scare the kid, man." Berd was louder this time, and the older red turned around. For a second, Berd thought he was just going to keep talking, but he stopped, giving Berd a nonchalant shrug.

"Whatever, man. Kid might as well know what he's gonna be face to face with in another few days." The red moved away from the younger pikmin, moving back to his former seat on a small pebble.

"…Another few days?" The kid said, still attached to the bigger pikmin's words.

"Yup." The red turned around, and gave the smaller one a sadistic glance. "Battalions keep getting sent into the ravine, and they don't come back. You know what that means? Eventually, they're gonna start sending _us_. Yeah, a few days…if you're _lucky._"

Before Berd could tell the big red to be quiet again, a shrill call carried to the three grunts; the order to return to the seed-pod. They all got up (the big red with mutters of 'finally!') and began trudging back towards the top of Gravestone, to the seed-pod.

As Berd walked, the smaller red moved next to him. The older one hurried off, eager to get into the seed-pod as soon as possible.

"Hey," The young red asked, his voice hushed as if worried there might be a blue nearby, "That stuff that that other guy said…its not true, is it?"

Berd paused in thought. He _could _tell this young pikmin the stories about the blues—specifically, the zealots, and the grim truth about them. About how they killed without emotion, murdering by the dozens. About how they mercilessly butchered squadron after squadron of red troops, and never seemed to die. About how no normal red, such as he or this young one, had absolutely no hope at all of killing one.

"…No. Don't worry, kid. Stick to what your commanding officer tells you, and you'll be fine."

---

"I'm…sorry to hear that."

It was odd for Yeer to see what he was seeing. It felt, in some ways, more peculiar than other things; it felt stranger than getting used to the seed-pods not taking off when they were underground, and stranger than the way the bulbmin were beginning to act once they had been brought underground. Though he hadn't known the purple king for very long, upon watching him, it was quite obvious he was not sad very much.

And yet, here he was, his head hung in sorrow.

"I knew him, lad. Lod was a good pikmin, and a good friend of mine. After seeing you take out that Wraith, I should've guessed you were one o' his."

"You knew Chieftain Lod?" Yeer asked, curious.

"Yes, lad, I did. I met him long before you were born, in all likelihood." Purle looked a bit nostalgic, all of a sudden. "He was always a bit odd—didn't fit the bill, for a yellow such as yourself. Always off, craving adventure and whatnot.

"We met when he came to visit the tan-pikmin, as it happens. Some sort of diplomatic curiosity that he was dealing with—though, if you ask me, he was just using that as a visit to explore the big, wide world." Purle laughed. "But I was in tan territory at the time. I'd never even seen a yellow, before him. But he was a brave pikmin, and a good soul. Saved my son's life during a little incident with bomb-rock."

Purle suddenly reverted, getting to his feet and holding out his hand for Yeer to shake. "Helping you, after what he did for me, and what you've done for me as well," He said, with the gruff friendliness that seemed to belong to all purples, "Would be the least I could do to repay 'im."

---

**All this blue versus red stuff may seem like filler, but its going somewhere. Trust me.**

**Reviews would be Super-Special-AWESOME!!**


	46. The Heaviest of all Burdens

**Hey guys. **

**Uhm...not much to say, really. Basically, this chapter focuses on our protagonist, Yeer, and the main subplot involving him. Its been mentioned a few times before this, but its addressed here in full, and will be far more important as the story continues. So...yeah. Here we go.  
**

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Pikmin of different colors typically tended to stay to themselves. As soon as they had joined forces with the greens, the yellows had not mingled much with their new allies during the daily treks the caravan made. The blues were more open to integrating themselves with the yellows than the greens were, but they still tended to bunch together around their seed-pod while on the march, Dorunot at their head. The bulbmin ran around the perimeter of the caravan, yipping and barking to one another—but now, as the united force made its way through underground tunnels, the bulbmin seemed far more subdued. Regardless, they did not interact very much with their taller brethren of any particular color.

But the purples didn't quite seem to bother who they were standing next to while on the march. Yeer had spotted some of their number conversing with purples, as well as yellows, and even the occasional (not to mention startled) greens, who were fairly antisocial and unapproachable for any other color. But these purples seemed to social to congregate with themselves alone—no, they were extroverted organisms.

Perhaps the reason they were spread so finely throughout their fellows was because they had no seed-pod to congregate to. As King Purle, standing alongside his next of kin, assembled a group of fifty warriors to bolster the caravan, Yeer had curiously asked him where his seed-pod was. Purle had laughed heartily at this.

Apparently, purples never had any seed-pods. They reproduced, instead, through small flowers called 'Candypop Buds'. These flowers were grown in one of the lower sections of the purples' tunnel system, in a cavern known as 'the nursery'. It was from here food was brought to the flowers, which spat out purple seeds when fed—or when a purple pikmin dived into one of these flowers himself, and was reincarnated with no knowledge of his past life. This idea of being reborn was shocking to Yeer, who still couldn't quite understand how the purples functioned without a seed-pod.

Furthermore, the 'Candypop Buds', or 'Sprouters' as most purples called them, also played a major role in the idea of the purple dynasties. In a small room behind the King's throne room, a Candypop bud was kept alive for countless generations. At some point in his life, each purple king would take a small amount of food back to the pod, and allow the Sprouter to release a single seed, which the king would then pluck and name as his successor. In previous times, the purple kings had occasionally plucked multiple seeds—and therefore had multiple princes—but, due to this practice leading to confrontation, Kings had eventually began to only sire a single heir (though 'sire' might not have been the proper word).

There was a good deal of information like this—information concerning the purples—that they, for the most part, kept to themselves. Naturally, Flewow had wanted to stay in the purple territory for as long as possible, documenting everything he found, but duty called. And Yeer—who was almost sad to tear Flewow away from the treasure-trove of information—was Flewow's closest best friend, and therefore heard more the scolar's insight and musings over purple culture than anything else. Flewow could go on and on for hours—everything ranging from hunting methods to spiritual beliefs was a topic. Sometimes, Yeer felt as if his head was going to explode; he had decided, during one of the more lengthy lectures concerning purple slang terms, that he was not of the scholarly sort.

…Yeer was, in truth, beginning to wonder precisely of what sort he was.

As a newborn, all Yeer had known was his typical day. Wake up, gather food, maybe spend some free time messing around with Lear, and then scramble back up into the seed-pod for some well-deserved rest. He had a simple life, and he had no issues with it at all; he was perfectly content to go on gathering food for his entire life.

He hadn't asked for excitement, or adventure, or even war, which—as he surveyed the massive group of warriors he had gathered—seemed somewhat inevitable when they reached the Barrens to fight the ants. He hadn't wanted any of this to happen. Yeer was not an adventurer, like his Chieftain had been. He was a common pikmin.

…But fate had decided, it seemed, that another road was cut out for this little yellow. A road far more daunting and challenging, as well as one that putting the yellow under far more pressure.

He knew now what was being expected of him—from Flewow, and all the other yellows as well. He was supposed to be their leader and representative through matters of all sorts—and Yeer did not know, still, if he was comfortable with that idea. He wasn't a military tactician, or a wise scholar; he was a worker. And workers—even workers who had killed Wraiths and braved unknown territories from across half the territory recorded by yellows—were not leaders.

But with a heavy sigh, and a look around all the assembled marching yellows, Yeer grimly recognized he had no choice. Whether he wanted it or not, he was stepping into the breach—being shoved into the breach, perhaps, but nonetheless…

Ever since their first days upon returning to the Brush after encountering the ants, haggard and terrified, Yeer had recognized what had to be done. He had gone before the Chieftains to tell them what he saw, just as Lear had—but he, out of the two, has become the leader since them. This scheme, this plan—he had been behind its creation. Flewow planned, and Yeer executed.

And so it was that, in the murk of a mountain tunnel, Yeer the worker bowed his head and let his burden truly weigh upon him.

And, just like any little morsel he had gathered for his seed-pod, he carried it with a sense of purpose.

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**Its short. I know. ...Sorry. But we got 2 more pikmin colors coming up in the future--two of the last 3 that we'll be seeing, I daresay--as well as some more Red vs. Blue stuff. Soooooo...yeah! **

**Also...WE BROKE TWO HUNDRED PAGES IN 1.5 LINE SPACING!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAH!! THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT, AS ALWAYS!!**

**Reviews would be nice...Heheheh...  
**


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